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LettersMind the gap between Hong Kong digital asset policy and practice

Readers discuss digital asset audits, the danger of setting a ride-hailing cap, and the bigger picture on allowing dogs in restaurants

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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, leaves Manhattan federal court in New York in 2023. Photo: AP
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When the Hong Kong Monetary Authority licensed the city’s first two stablecoin issuers in April, HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, it capped one of the fastest regulatory build-outs this market has seen. The first licensed Hong Kong dollar stablecoin made its first live transfer this month.

In barely a year, the Securities and Futures Commission published its ASPIRe road map for growing Hong Kong’s virtual asset market, consulted on new regimes for dealers and custodians, and allowed platforms to offer more products and liquidity. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has set out what listed companies must disclose about digital-asset activity. The architecture is nearly built.

Something is missing one layer down, where no circular reaches: the audit committee. A growing number of listed companies hold digital assets, take them in payment, or partner with a licensee. For them the question is no longer what to disclose – HKEX has answered that – but how the board knows that what it discloses is true.

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