Web3 Connect: Hong Kong and the World

Web3 Connect: Hong Kong and the World

Event Details:

Date: 7 September 2024 (Saturday)

Time: 2:30pm to 6:00pm

Venue: CyberArena, Cyberport Arcade

Organizers:Cyberport, Cyberport  Web3 Base

Co-organizers: Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Foresight Ventures

Guests:

Guest speakers include Mr. Chan Ho-lim, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury; Ms. May Chu May-yan, Director of Corporate Development, Cyberport; Mr. Darren Chiu, Legislative Councillor (Technology and Innovation) and President of Hong Kong Information Technology Federation; Ms. Emily Parker, renowned author; Mr. Forest Bai, Co-founder of Foresight Ventures, and the following industry leaders and visionaries:

Yuan Liu, CEO of Circle Technology

Kerui Liu, Co-founder of Terminal 3

left;">Du Yu, General Manager of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab

Yam Ki Chan, Vice President of Circle Asia Pacific

Dominic Maffei, Head of Digital Assets and Fintech, Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank

Zhu Haokang, Head of Digital Asset Management and Family Wealth, Hong Kong, China Asset Management

Lin Zhanyan, Head of Stablecoin Project, Animoca Brands

Excerpt of the event:

In response to changes in the regulatory environment in Hong Kong and the world, Hong Kong Cyberport held the "Web3 Connect: Hong Kong and the The event brought together leaders and visionaries from the government, finance, and technology sectors, together with start-up elites, to discuss the stablecoin policies and developments in different countries and regions, including representatives participating in the "Sandbox" for stablecoin issuers launched by the HKMA. The number of physical and online participants reached 10,000. Mr. Chan Ho-lim, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, delivered an opening speech at the conference, pointing out that Hong Kong has achieved many milestones since the release of the Policy Declaration on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong in 2022, which clarified the government's policy stance and guidelines for developing a vibrant virtual asset industry and ecosystem in Hong Kong, laying the foundation for the next wave of development opportunities for Hong Kong's Web3.0.

As the organizer of the event, Ms. May Chu, Director of Corporate Development of Cyberport, said in her opening speech that Cyberport is the flagship of digital technology and an incubator for startups in Hong Kong. After receiving strategic investment from the Hong Kong government last year, it launched a number of programs related to talent cultivation, promoting industry development and technology applications, and enhancing public awareness of the Web3.0 industry to accelerate the development of the Web3.0 industry. Since the establishment of the "Cyberport Web3 Base", it has brought together more than 260 companies engaged in Web3.0 from local, mainland China, and 19 overseas countries, covering the fields of financial technology, smart life and digital entertainment.

Mr. Darren Chiu, Member of the Legislative Council (Technology and Innovation) and Chairman of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, delivered a speech on behalf of one of the co-organizers, the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, and said that he was pleased to see that everyone was not afraid of the arrival of Typhoon "Makar" and the temporary change of the event to postpone it for one day, and still gathered together to discuss the changes in the regulatory environment in Hong Kong and the world, which shows that the people present have a strong interest in the development of this emerging industry.

This forum specially invited Ms. Emily Parker, a famous writer and former Executive Director of Global Strategy at CoinDesk, to come to Cyberport to give a speech, covering the theme of the global regulatory environment and a special discussion on stablecoins. She has worked as a policy planner at the US State Department and a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. In recent years, she has focused on writing and speaking on global digital asset regulatory trends. The key points of Emily's speech on virtual asset regulatory trends are as follows:

"Crypto friendly" does not mean "Crypto-easy", because "crypto-friendly" jurisdictions have strict requirements for sustainable development. For example: Hong Kong has comprehensive regulations and direct rules; Singapore is friendly to asset tokenization, but not to cryptocurrencies; Japan is one of the first countries to formulate comprehensive stablecoin regulation, but the threshold is high; South Korea has a strong retail market, but there are still gray areas; cryptocurrency has also become an issue in the US election, and there have been many cases related to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in this field.

Hong Kong is moving towards becoming a digital asset center, with comprehensive virtual asset regulation and exchange licenses that allow retail trading. Hong Kong is taking cautious measures and needs to meet the 98% "cold wallet" regulations and comply with strict supervision. Hong Kong is also actively committed to Web 3.0 development, providing a new "sandbox" for stablecoin issuers and providing real-time ETFs for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Emily also conducted a detailed analysis of each jurisdiction. Singapore has clear regulation on tokenization. Ravi Menon, former director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), once said: "Cryptocurrency has failed the test of digital currency"; Japan has clear, friendly and strict cryptocurrency regulation, and clarifies the legal status of "decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). However, in terms of cryptocurrency taxation, the tax rate is as high as 55%, which is one of the reasons why the country has not yet launched a Bitcoin spot ETF, because this may be disadvantageous to ETF issuers with lower tax rates compared to existing Web3.0 industry players.

Foresight VenturesCo-founderForesight Bai also shared the challenges and opportunities of Hong Kong in establishing a global Web3.0 supply chain network at the event. He pointed out that Web3.0 is more international in nature, and Hong Kong's traditional position as a financial and import and export hub can play a role in Web3.0, including having world-class universities, support for start-ups, and well-funded local companies. However, the challenge is that Hong Kong only developed Web3 two years ago, and Hong Kong still needs to catch up and have more local Web3.0 companies, including by increasing efforts to attract global talents, increasing financial support for Web3.0 companies, providing support for early project teams and developers, and encouraging more Web3.0 cases in daily life.

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Hong Kong Government's support for promoting the development of the Web3.0 ecosystem and related initiatives launched by Cyberport

The Hong Kong government issued a policy statement on the development of virtual assets in Hong Kong in 2022, setting out the government's policy stance and guidelines for developing a vibrant virtual asset industry and ecosystem in Hong Kong.

Since then, Hong Kong has achieved many milestones, such as: the introduction of a licensing system for virtual asset exchanges in June last year; the listing of Asia's first batch of spot virtual asset ETFs in Hong Kong in April this year; and the completion of a public consultation on the regulatory framework for virtual asset exchanges and stablecoins at the beginning of this year.

In March this year, Hong Kong took another important step to introduce a stablecoin "sandbox" to further refine its program. The HKMA received inquiries from dozens of institutions. In July this year, the HKMA announced the first three participants in the "sandbox". These measures and regulations further lay the foundation for the development of Web3.0 in Hong Kong.

As the flagship of digital technology and an incubator for startups in Hong Kong, Cyberport received a grant of HK$50 million from the Hong Kong government last year to accelerate the development of the local Web3.0 ecosystem.

Cyberport has been continuously cultivating talents, promoting industry development and technology applications, and enhancing public awareness of the Web3.0 industry to accelerate the development of the local Web3.0 ecosystem.

Since the establishment of the "Cyberport  Web3 Base", Cyberport has brought together more than 260 Web3.0 companies from Hong Kong, the Mainland, and 19 overseas countries, covering areas such as financial technology, smart life and digital entertainment.

Among them are three unicorn companies, namely blockchain game company Animoca Brands, Asian digital asset financial services group HashKey, and Web3.0 and blockchain security company CertiK.

As the headquarters of Hong Kong's financial technology and Web3.0, Cyberport has been encouraging startups to collaborate with different institutions and government departments through various pilot programs. For example, Cyberport startups EVIDENT and Linghu Chong will participate in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project Ensemble "Sandbox" program, a part of the green and sustainable finance program, to collaborate on tokenized physical assets (RWA) and use blockchain technology to improve the transparency and efficiency of green and sustainable finance. Two Cyberport startups (Yuanbi Technology and Animoca Brands) also participated in the HKMA's stablecoin "Sandbox"; another participant, JD CoinChain Technology, is a partner of the "Cyberport Enterprise Network" (CEN); community member HashKey is one of the two licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong and an issuer of Hong Kong's virtual asset ETF.

To build a thriving third-generation Internet ecosystem, Cyberport established the "Web3.0 Investment Circle" (W3IC) to establish an investor network dedicated to the Web3.0 field and promote investment in Web3.0 projects. Cyberport has also supported more than 60 industry conferences and events; Cyberport's "Web3 Living Lab", which showcases the latest innovative solutions for Web3.0, has received more than 15,000 visitors to date, including government officials, enterprises and Web3.0 companies from all over the world.

As technological innovation becomes the mainstream of the world economy, all walks of life have entered the peak period of digital transformation, and the local and global markets are eager for innovative and technological talents. As a key innovation and technology incubator in Hong Kong, Cyberport has been committed to cultivating technology talents and entrepreneurs, while promoting the development of the technology industry, promoting the digital transformation of public and private organizations, and creating a new economic driving force for Hong Kong.

This year, the Cyberport University Partnership Program (CUPP) focused on Web3.0 and entrepreneurship training, trained more than 40 students from 20 program teams from 11 local universities, and set up a training camp in Silicon Valley.

Technology is changing with each passing day. As the development of artificial intelligence matures, it is expected to bring huge potential and wide application. As Hong Kong's leading artificial intelligence base, Cyberport is fully committed to building Hong Kong's first large-scale artificial intelligence supercomputing center, and the first phase of facilities will be available within the year.

In the latest Budget, the Hong Kong Government has allocated HK$3 billion to support universities, research institutes and enterprises to use the computing power of the Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Centre. The relevant facilities will enhance Hong Kong's research and development capabilities in various scientific research and application fields, including life science and health technology, artificial intelligence and data science, advanced manufacturing and new energy technology, and at the same time attract start-ups and scientific research talents from home and abroad to Hong Kong, helping Hong Kong to leverage its advantages in basic scientific research and internationalization.

In the future, with the strong support of the Hong Kong Government, Cyberport will continue to make good use of its unique advantages to provide a platform for communication, cooperation and resource sharing for all stakeholders, while promoting cross-sector cooperation and cooperating with leading technology companies to more effectively promote the development of innovation and technology industries including artificial intelligence and the third-generation Internet, and empower innovation and technology and the digital economy.

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About CyberportAs Hong Kong’s digital technology flagship and incubation base, Cyberport brings together over 2,000 community enterprises, including over 900 resident and over 1,100 non-resident start-ups and technology companies. It is managed by the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Cyberport's vision is to inject new impetus into the development of digital economy and smart city with innovative technology, and to lead enterprises to connect domestic and overseas markets. Cyberport is committed to creating a thriving innovation and technology ecosystem by nurturing innovative technology talents, encouraging young people to start businesses, and supporting start-ups; promoting the development of the technology industry through cooperation with local, mainland and international strategic partners; and accelerating the adoption of digital technology by public and private organizations to implement digital transformation and promote the integration of the new economy and the traditional economy.

For more information, please visit www.cyberport.hk