October 3, 2024
By Our Correspondent
HashKey Exchange, one of the two licensed cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong, has obtained authorization to offer two additional tokens to retail investors, alongside bitcoin and ether, as the city aims to revitalize its aspirations as a virtual asset hub, according to the South China Morning Post.
Last week, HashKey listed Avax and Link, two lesser-known cryptocurrency tokens, on its platform, enabling retail investors in Hong Kong to purchase them using both Hong Kong and US dollars, as stated by HashKey CEO Livio Weng in an interview with the Post on August 22.
“This indicates that Hong Kong is poised to accelerate its efforts in the Web3 sector,” he remarked. “There could be various factors driving this momentum, but a significant catalyst may have been Trump’s expressed desire to advance Web3 initiatives in the United States.”
Although these tokens are not as widely recognized as many others in the cryptocurrency market, HashKey selected them after evaluating that numerous tokens with higher market capitalizations are currently entangled in legal challenges globally, Weng noted.
As of Wednesday, Avax, the native token of the Avalanche blockchain, had a market capitalization of approximately US$10.7 billion, according to data from market tracker CoinGecko. Meanwhile, Link, utilized within the Chainlink oracle network, had around US$7 billion in circulating tokens. Both tokens rank among the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, a crucial criterion in Hong Kong for determining eligibility for retail investors.
These tokens represent the first virtual assets that Hong Kong regulators have sanctioned for retail trading, more than a year after the Securities and Futures Commission initiated a new licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges. Previously, only bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies globally, were available for retail purchase on licensed platforms.
