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Hong Kong? Singapore? Tokyo? Seoul? Dubai? The race is on for the Web3 hub of Asia
- OKX and Bitget have applied for licenses in Hong Kong, while data provider Kaiko and exchange Huobi are moving their Asia headquarters to Hong Kong from Singapore
- Other Asian cities want a piece of the action, with Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Dubai all positioning themselves to be a part of this new digital asset economy
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In a special two-part series, Forkast. News examines the potential of Hong Kong and other emerging cryptocurrency hubs in Asia.
Hong Kong, which ranks number three among 190 economies for ease of doing business, has been leading the narrative in Asia around the blockchain-based evolution of the internet, or Web3, since the end of last year when the city announced a raft of initiatives to attract digital asset businesses, including cryptocurrency platforms.
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While those plans include strict regulations to prevent a repeat of the multibillion dollar collapses of the Terra-Luna cryptocurrency project and FTX exchange last year, companies ranging from non-fungible token developers to trading platforms and metaverse builders seem to like what they see in the Hong Kong strategy.
Cryptocurrency trading platforms like OKX and Bitget have applied for operation licenses in Hong Kong, while cryptocurrency data provider Kaiko and cryptocurrency exchange Huobi said they are moving their Asia headquarters to Hong Kong from Singapore.
“Hong Kong will more than likely become not just Asia’s cryptocurrency hub, but the de facto cryptocurrency hub globally,” Vincent Chok, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based consultancy First Digital Trust, told Forkast. “The US is in a holding pattern with its regulation paralysis, and Dubai has ambitions to become a cryptocurrency hub, but in terms of innovation, Hong Kong still leads.”
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