Hong Kong officials and industry insiders touted the city’s cryptocurrency trials and regulatory stability as strengths for the market at the Belt and Road Forum on Thursday, amid crypto euphoria around of Donald Trump’s re-election to the US presidency has pushed the price of bitcoin beyond. US$100,000 this week.
“Trump is unpredictable. Perhaps he will change his mind tomorrow; you never know,” said Joseph Chan – president of the think tank Silk Road Economic Development Research Centre, one of the event organizers – who moderated a panel at the forum on Web3 and the economy digital.
“Hong Kong’s regulations are more consistent, which I think is the right approach.”
The local Belt and Road Forum event held this week at the Conrad Hong Kong is part of a series of events promoting support for the Chinese state. Belt and Road Initiative.
It aims to promote trade and development in Asia, Europe and Africa. Hong Kong has been a key pillar of the initiative in its role as a facilitator of cross-border payments, with the local government recently highlighting the role played blockchain could play in this area.
Director General of Hong Kong John Lee Ka-chiu said in his keynote speech delivered via video that tokenization – placing real-world assets on a blockchain – is gaining influence as a key technology in the financial sector.
