Odaily News Ye Zhiheng, executive director of the Intermediaries Department of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, expects that a virtual asset development roadmap will be announced this month. In addition to explaining the development principles, the roadmap will also mention the SFC's expectations and scope of market research in the short term, as well as areas where platform participants hope to optimize.
Last week, the SFC held its first virtual asset advisory group meeting with representatives of licensed virtual asset trading platform operators. Ye Zhiheng, the group chairman, said that the future development direction of the market was discussed at the meeting. He pointed out that the market actively applied for licenses in the first stage, but believed that the operating model was more important to enable their business to continue to develop.
There are currently 9 licensed virtual asset trading platforms and 9 applicants. When asked whether he expected that the platforms currently on the applicant list would be licensed, Ye Zhiheng said that the current progress is very good, and the market is becoming more and more clear about the SFC's licensing standards. He emphasized that new licenses will be issued, but whether all of them will be licensed depends on whether they meet the requirements.
In addition, Ye Zhiheng attended the discussion session of the Asian Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's annual meeting and said that the focus of the virtual asset roadmap to be announced soon is not on the content itself, but on the SFC's courage to show the market its principles and its attitude for the market to consider. He does not think there is a contradiction between market development and regulation, and believes that as a regulator, one must understand the market in order to better regulate. (Hong Kong Radio website)