What the numbers say: The value of companies listing in Hong Kong has severely decreased over the past few years. The market saw a peak in 2020, with companies valued at over $50B. But, thanks to pandemic restrictions and a slowing Chinese economy, valuations have sunk since then. To date, companies have only been valued at $2.25B for 2023. Relevance: Hong Kong is picking up the slack when it comes to cryptocurrencies at a time when many other countries, including the U.S. and China, are leery of it. Regulators have introduced a new licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges, which allows the company to serve individual investors. Hong Kong's first exchange-traded funds (ETF) backed by crypto futures were launched in December. The country has made this push to put out a clearer regulatory framework to attract more companies to its market. Other countries: This comes as the U.S. has cracked down on regulating, with recent lawsuits filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Binance and Coinbase, two large players in the industry. Mainland China has declared all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal as of 2021. |
