Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) CEO Ashley Alder disclosed that the commission will adopt a “sandbox” regulatory regime for crypto exchanges in the Asian financial hub in order to efficiently monitor digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
“Those exchanges that want to be regulated by us will be set apart from those that don’t,” he said, adding that in the “sandbox” stage no formal regulatory approval will be given to any exchange.
“This is essentially an opt-in approach for exchanges and platform operators, and they will first explore the conceptual framework with us in a strict sandbox environment,” Alder added.
All funds that invest more than 10% of a mixed portfolio in crypto assets, whether they are securities or not, have to comply with the new rules established by the SFC.
These measures complement the regulator’s efforts announced last February to crackdown on unlicensed or illegal cryptocurrency exchanges.