Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Travel rule to take effect in Hong Kong starting January 1, 2024
A new set of rules governing inter-exchange deposits and withdrawals will take effect in Hong Kong on New Year’s Eve, making life a little more difficult for local crypto users.
As an example, deposits to crypto exchange Hashkey of HKD $8,000 or more ($1,000) will now be only credited if they originated from Binance (but not Binance.US.) The exchange said:
“Clients with the same name account undergo an expedited verification process, and no verification documents are required. Deposits from other exchanges is currently not supported. We will be gradually expanding the list of supported exchanges on our platform.”
Exchange deposits under that limit will be supported from 24 entities, but even then users must provider KYC information and screenshots of their accounts on other exchanges. The vice versa applies to inter-exchange withdrawals originating from Hashkey. In one small glimmer of light, the Travel Rule only applies to third-party exchanges and does not affect self-custody wallets.
The exchange warned that if user information doesn’t match for deposits or withdrawals, the transaction will be reversed and users will need to pay the transaction fees.
Hashkey’s crypto insurance partnership with OneDegree. (Hashkey)
210 Web3 firms now domiciled in Hong Kong
At the inaugural Hong Kong Web 3.0 Summit on December 21, Paul Chan Mopo, the financial secretary of Hong Kong, said that 210 Web3 firms are now domiciled there due to its friendly regulations. Chan praised blockchain technology as solving “old problems” and “new difficulties.”
“As long as we can provide efficient, fast, cheap and reliable business or transaction models, continuously and extensively solve pain points and create value, the real needs of the market will become the driving force for everyone’s…
..
