Hong Kong Regulators Mulling Over Banning Retail BTC Trading

Hong Kong regulators have moved to prohibit retail crypto trading in Hong Kong after months of profound supposition about a probable banning.

As per a recent report by Reuters, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong has divulged the results of its discussion on a likely retail digital asset trading ban, which started back in the month of November, last year.

As part of its inferences, Hong Kong’s FSTB called for a detailed licensing arrangement for digital asset exchanges while limiting trading only to proficient investors. According to the Hong Kong law, only individuals with portfolios over eight million Hong Kong dollars (approximately one million dollars) qualify as professional investors.

For the FSTB, the retail virtual currency trading ban is essential at least in the initial stages of the detailed digital asset licensing regime. The FSTB purportedly plans to present its interpretations before legislators in Hong Kong to ease the passage of the draft into law.

If passed, the suggested licensing regime will also substitute the present opt-in model for digital asset exchanges in the city.

By limiting virtual asset trading in Hong Kong to individuals with portfolios worth at least a million dollars, the FSTB is essentially excluding around ninety three percent of the city’s population from gaining exposure to digital currencies.

Tweeting on Friday, Chinese digital asset media outlet 8BTC News divulged that the SFC may soon be given the power to implement the right at will.