Hong Kong could be a ‘tailwind’ for lagging crypto activity in Asia — Chainalysis

Current crypto developments in Hong Kong might offer a “prospective tailwind” to raise crypto activity in the East Asian region, which has actually primarily suffered from a China-wide restriction on trading activities since 2019. Source: Chainalysis.However, Chainalysis stated there is “bubbling optimism” in Hong Kong, noting that despite its much smaller population, Hong Kong is currently an “very active crypto market” by raw deal volume.Between July 2022 and June 2023, the market received an estimated $64 billion in crypto, compared to $86.4 billion in China, in spite of having a population of just 0.5% the size of the mainland.In comments to Chainalysis, Merton Lam of Crypto HK– a non-prescription digital property trading center in Hong Kong– stated cryptocurrencies are becoming a staple in the financial investment portfolios of numerous banks, personal equity companies and high-net-worth individuals it works with in the region.In addition, Chinese state-owned companies have also released cryptocurrency-focused financial investment funds of late.That being said, Dave Chapman of digital property platform OSL Digital Securities informed Chainalysis that while digital properties “are not going away” in East Asia, its still too early to say whether Hong Kongs crypto ambitions indicate China has totally welcomed the cryptocurrency area.” Related: Hong Kong retains top crypto-ready position for two successive yearsSpeaking to Cointelegraph, Matrixports head of research study and method, Markus Thielen, stated Hong Kong will serve as a “screening ground” for wider cryptocurrency adoption in China.However, Hong Kong is making a huge play in one specific location which other states havent managed to capitalize on, states Thielen:” Crucially, there is a real interest to bring in the crypto property management market which has actually so far been a missing out on piece of the puzzle as the majority of crypto companies tend to be identified as service companies, instead of being the end-user of crypto.