In brief
On 8 February 2024, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong (FSTB) released a public consultation (“Consultation“) on legislative proposals to introduce a licensing regime (“Proposed Regime“) for providers of over-the-counter (OTC) trading services of virtual assets (VA). The Proposed Regime will be regulated by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise (CCE). In view of recent fraud cases involving VA OTC operators and the large scale of VA OTC operators in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Hong Kong Government) sees the need to regulate. The Consultation represents the latest step in the city to further enhance the VA regulatory framework as outlined by the Hong Kong Government in its 2022 Policy Statement on Development of VA in Hong Kong.1 The consultation will end on 12 April 2024. We discuss the Consultation in more detail below.
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1 https://gia.info.gov.hk/general/202210/31/P2022103000454_404805_1_1667173469522.pdf
