Xu Zhengyu: Promote the development of the virtual asset market and regulate stable coin issuers in the future

Recently, the Director of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong, Christopher Hui, stated on a radio program that the government has many specific measures to promote the development of the virtual asset market. This includes the existence of several virtual asset ETFs on exchanges. In the future, Hong Kong authorities will regulate stablecoin issuers, as well as custodians and consult the market on regulating over-the-counter trading of virtual assets. Some funds that meet tax regulations may be exempt from taxes. Hui mentioned that the country supports Hong Kong in expanding the RMB ecosystem. Currently, there are over 20 Hong Kong stocks with RMB counters. The next step will be to connect these counters to the "Southbound Link", allowing mainland investors to directly buy RMB stocks listed in Hong Kong using RMB. He believes that in order for the financial market to grow, there must be an all-in-one platform. Hong Kong can provide many professional services, and he hopes to make Hong Kong seem like an integrated platform to the outside world. For example, in RMB business, there should be both stocks and bonds, spot trading and futures, building a complete ecosystem. Last year's policy address proposed the establishment of an international gold trading center. Hui mentioned that gold, unlike other investment products, requires storage. Hong Kong will increase its gold storage capacity at the airport to 1000 metric tons. He noted that the gold market is currently dominated by London, the USA, and China. Hong Kong has not yet achieved internationalization in terms of trading and settlement, so they aim to establish a larger capital pool in trading and settlement on top of the storage capacity to serve the global market.