The Commission on securities and futures (SFC), based in Hong Kong, has released a document outlining guidelines for the funds, working with cryptocurrency. Also, the authority stated that it can proceed to formal regulation kryptomere.
The Commission presented the document as a guide to regulatory compliance standards. According to the head of Department Ashley elder (Ashley Alder), the document was an important step in establishing a full-fledged formal regulatory framework for cryptocurrency sphere.
Hong Kong differs significantly in their attitude towards cryptocurrencies from China, part of which is. Recall that in China, there are a ban on ICO, and the largest cryptocurrency exchanges have long ceased operations in the country. In Hong Kong activities related to cryptocurrency assets of a legitimate, albeit carried out without official regulation.
“The market of virtual assets is still very young, and trade rules can be opaque and unlawful,” said the elder. — “Downtime as frequent as market manipulation and abuse. Also, I’m afraid, happen various scandals and fraud.”
The guidelines contained in document SFC, must comply with all funds that invest more than 10% of their funds in cryptocurrency. It is reported that the organization working only with professional traders with a special legal regime, which allows to develop new products and services. Everyone else will need to provide the SFC with information about its activities.
“To ensure better protection of investors, the SFC has decided that all licensed organizations that manage investment portfolios that include virtual assets, must comply with the same regulatory requirements, even if the portfolios under their management is partly investment in virtual assets, regardless of whether evaluated these assets as securities or futures contracts”, — says in the document.
In the future the Commission is likely to be in control and operation of cryptocurrency exchanges. At least, it hints at the document, pointing to the need to comply with trading platforms with similar regulations.
In August, the Hong Kong authorities decided to modernize the Program for migrants with distinctive abilities (QMAS) by adding the category of professionals working with distributed registries — so the government hopes to attract blockchain professionals in the administrative district.
