Latest news with #ConsensusHongKong
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Founder of Trump's World Liberty Financial Credits Justin Sun for Project's Success
HONG KONG — World Liberty Financial, the Donald Trump-backed crypto project, owes much of its early success to Justin Sun, the Chinese-born crypto billionaire who became an official advisor to the project after purchasing $30 million worth of its token, WLFI, said World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman. Folkman remarked that, "the goal of the project is being able to create progress to actually merge traditional financial institutions with decentralized finance,' in a panel at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong conference. For several weeks, the Trump-endorsed WLFI faced lackluster sales, failing to reach its $30 million fundraising target. The token was restricted from trading and only available to non-U.S. investors and accredited U.S. investors. The project's fortunes changed, however, when Sun stepped in. 'This guy,' Folkman said with a gesture towards Sun, 'saw that regardless of the outcome, this project is a monumental move forward for the entire crypto community.' When Trump announced World Liberty Financial alongside his sons in October, they said it would be a lending platform based on Aave — a popular Ethereum-based decentralized finance protocol. The platform has yet to launch, but according to Folkman, World Liberty is now developing "a whole range of products and applications" — not just a single tool. Today, World Liberty Financial is known for WLFI, the governance token that it put up for sale mere days after the project was unveiled. "When we were launching this project, it was a very heated time," Folkman told the panel. "There was a lot of scrutiny on our project due to who was involved." After Sun's 10-figure endorsement, 'everything kind of snowballed from there,' said Folkman. World Liberty not only oversold its fundraising target, but it eventually set a new one. Should it meet its new goal — which it seems poised to do soon — Folkman noted that WLFI will become the fourth-largest initial coin offering (ICO) of all time. Folkman claims WLFI's success came despite "no VC backing and no special treatment to anybody who purchased the token." Sun, however, was elevated to an official World Liberty investor after his WLFI purchase. World Liberty also bought $10 million worth of TRX tokens — the native token of Sun's TRON blockchain — and WBTC, a Sun-linked bitcoin derivative. Earlier in Feb., Blockworks reported that World Liberty has been shopping a deal to crypto teams: If a company purchases WLFI tokens and pays an additional fee, World Liberty will add that company's tokens to its portfolio — a powerful marketing instrument for up-and-coming crypto tokens. 'I've seen that going around," Folkman said of the report. "The person who was going out and purporting to represent us was not connected with our company.'
South China Morning Post
19-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Consensus Hong Kong: regulators seeks ‘global liquidity' in crypto in Web3 push
Hong Kong is gearing up to compete for 'global liquidity' in the virtual asset industry, the city's regulators said on Wednesday at Consensus, one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency conferences, as the Asian financial centre sees some success attracting international business. 'We have to think how are we going to provide a regulatory framework for growth which allows for responsible innovation … and tapping into global liquidity,' SFC Chief Executive Julia Leung said during a panel discussion. The SFC on Tuesday granted a virtual asset trading platform licence to New York-based Bullish, the first international cryptocurrency exchange to get the licence in Hong Kong. The licence came on the first day of Consensus Hong Kong, which is organised by Bullish subsidiary CoinDesk. The main conference kicked off on Wednesday, when crypto industry heavyweights including Binance CEO Richard Teng and Tron founder Justin Sun spoke at the event at the Wan Chai Exhibition Centre. Consensus Hong Kong is the first major expansion of one of the leading crypto conferences since Bullish acquired the crypto news organisation CoinDesk in 2023. Visitors on the floor of Consensus Hong Kong, which kicked off its main events on Wednesday. Photo: AFP Coinciding with Consensus, the SFC unveiled a new road map with twelve initiatives designed to 'future-proof' Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem. Under the framework, Hong Kong aims to expand product offerings, act as a bridge to traditional finance and 'attract global platforms, order flows and liquidity providers'. The regulator noted that the city's virtual asset market currently 'remains restrictive in scope', impacting investor choice.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tokenisation a 'defining trend' for Web3 in Hong Kong as city hosts major Consensus event
Hong Kong is intensifying its focus on tokenisation and stablecoins to bolster its Web3 industry, the financial services secretary said ahead of a major international blockchain conference, as the city's virtual asset push faces increased competition from the US. Tokenisation is one of the "defining trends" and a "profoundly transformative" development that could reshape traditional financial markets, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said in a keynote speech on Tuesday at Consensus Hong Kong 2025. Consensus, organised by US crypto news outlet CoinDesk, is one of the industry's biggest conferences. The organiser added Hong Kong as a location this year in its first major expansion since CoinDesk was acquired by the cryptocurrency exchange Bullish in November 2023. The main Consensus Hong Kong event kicks off on Wednesday. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Tokenisation refers to the process of creating tradeable tokens on a blockchain that represent ownership of real-world assets. Since the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published circulars in November 2023 outlining requirements for tokenised investment products, Hong Kong companies have jumped on the trend, touting the flexibility and accessibility of tokenised products. HSBC Gold Token is the first such retail product to be issued by a bank in Hong Kong, according to HSBC, as the government pushes for the issuance of more tokenised assets. Photo: HSBC alt=HSBC Gold Token is the first such retail product to be issued by a bank in Hong Kong, according to HSBC, as the government pushes for the issuance of more tokenised assets. Photo: HSBC> HSBC in March last year launched a tokenised gold product called HSBC Gold Token for its retail customers in Hong Kong. Last week, the Hong Kong arm of one of China's largest fund houses, China Asset Management (Hong Kong), said that it received approval from the SFC to offer a tokenised money market fund in the city that will also be available to retail investors. The fund will launch by the end of February, the company said. In his Tuesday speech, Hui also highlighted Hong Kong's commitment to developing fiat-referenced stablecoins, an increasingly important focus of the industry. Stablecoins can address issues in cross-border payments, international trade, and digital commerce, he said. In December, the Hong Kong government introduced a bill to regulate stablecoins to the Legislative Council, bringing it one step closer to requiring a licence for stablecoin issuers. While the SFC oversees the licensing regime for issuers of other cryptocurrencies known as virtual assets, stablecoins will be governed by the city's de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Recent moves in the US have taken some of the wind out of Hong Kong's sails as a major financial market courting the crypto industry. US President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in January, campaigned on a crypto-friendly platform and has made several moves seen as positive for the industry since resuming office. Trump has said he intends to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet". This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Zawya
19-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Hong Kong eyes crypto derivatives, margin lending in digital asset push
HONG KONG - Hong Kong is considering approving derivatives and margin lending in virtual assets for some investors, its financial regulator said on Wednesday, as the city seeks to boost its competitiveness as a digital assets hub and attract capital. Hong Kong first drew up a plan to become a virtual asset trading centre in 2022 - an effort that followed Beijing's sweeping ban on all cryptocurrency transactions in mainland China the previous year. It has since launched the first spot crypto exchange-traded funds in Asia and other initiatives. "We are considering derivative products for professional investors, margin lending for certain customers," Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) CEO Julia Leung told CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong 2025 conference, referring to digital assets. The city's financial secretary, Paul Chan, told the event the city's regulators have so far issued nine virtual asset trading platform (VATP) licences. Bullish Group, a cryptocurrency exchange which owns crypto news website CoinDesk, said it had been granted one of the licences on Tuesday. Leung said there are eight more applications being considered, and Chan said the government was also working to advance the regulation of stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Hong Kong's SFC will release a virtual asset roadmap later on Wednesday with detailed growth plans, Leung added. Alongside Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are also aiming to become global hubs for virtual assets. Consensus Hong Kong is the first major crypto industry gathering since U.S. President Donald Trump took office last month, promising crypto-friendly policies, and speakers expressed a bullish view on the regulatory environment. "There's a big shift in sentiment in the U.S.," said Richard Teng, chief executive of Binance Holdings. He said some sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors have gone from debating whether they should invest in crypto to considering how much they should invest. Separately, Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain network, told a panel he had invested in World Liberty Financial - a newly launched crypto company partly owned by Trump - because it focuses "on bridging traditional finance with the crypto world". The price of bitcoin more than doubled last year. It hit an all-time high of $109,071 on January 20 this year, the day of Trump's inauguration, but has since pulled back to stand at about $96,000.
Bloomberg
19-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Wintermute's Gaevoy on Business Expansion Plans
Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO at Wintermute, discusses his outlook for growth and business strategy, and says its looking to expand its operations into the US. He speaks with Bloomberg's Annabelle Droulers from the sidelines of the "Consensus Hong Kong" event. (Source: Bloomberg)
