Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan is optimistic about Web3, comparing the recent market crash with the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s.
According to a South China Morning Post article, Hong Kong is preparing for a two-day digital economy summit from Thursday. Ahead of the conference, Financial Secretary Chan said that “the time is ripe for the city to invest in the Web3 digital economy.”
He also explained that the participants who survived the “bubble burst” can focus on innovation.
Hong Kong Commits to Becoming Crypto Hub
The crypto market is gradually trying to recover from the downturn caused by last year’s catastrophic turn of events. The collapse of Terraform Labs, Celsius, Voyager, and the fall of Three Arrow Capitals triggered last year’s bear market.
It was further intensified with the collapse of FTX and the contagion caused by it in November 2022.
Chan believes the Web3 ecosystem is in similar conditions to the dot-com bubble burst of the start of the century. Many companies with dot-com in their name collapsed and went out of business. But a few, like Amazon and Microsoft, that survived the crash have gone on to become the IT titans of today.
He says, “The recent instability of the virtual assets market and the collapse of some virtual asset exchanges have cast doubts on the future of Web3, but we believe this is the best time to promote development.” In January, Chan committed to making Hong Kong a regional crypto hub.
Money Flows Into Hong Kong Web3 Ecosystem
The crypto trading platform Bitget announced a $100 million Web3 fund during Hong Kong Blockchain Week. The fund aims to “foster a positive attitude towards the digital currencies economy and support the development of the web3 environment.”
In late March, a Hong Kong-based investment fund, ProDigital Futures, announced its plans to invest $100 million in crypto ventures.
Also, in the February budget, Hong Kong allocated HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) to organize international conferences and youth workshops for Web3 development.
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, tweeted, “Hong Kong’s #Web3 commitment shows how vital it is to have a long-term vision & embrace innovation, even in uncertain markets.”
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