PANews reported on December 11 that Joseph Chan, Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong is exploring ways to speed up the licensing approval process for crypto trading platforms, and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) plans to set up an "advisory group" early next year to provide support to licensed platforms.

Since Hong Kong launched the crypto trading platform licensing system in June 2023, it has issued licenses to platforms such as OSL Exchange, HashKey Exchange and HKVAX, allowing them to provide trading services for retail investors. In addition, the government is also promoting stablecoin regulation and plans to submit relevant bills to the Legislative Council this month, requiring all issuers of stablecoins pegged to legal currencies to apply for licenses from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

At the same time, the Hong Kong authorities also plan to put forward licensing regulatory proposals for crypto asset custody services next year to further improve the regulatory framework of the crypto industry.