America’s crackdown on the crypto industry is music to the ears of Asian nations looking to embrace digital finance. China now has multiple avenues to become dominant in the space despite its overall anti-crypto attitude.
The big economies in Asia, including China, are opening up to crypto in their own ways as the West continues to squeeze the industry.
China Crypto Controls Coming?
On June 26, U.S. politics-focused outlet Politico reported that China has multiple ways to win the “competition to dominate the future of money and finance.”
Thanks to its special administrative region in Hong Kong, China has a multi-prong crypto approach. Beijing has banned crypto for retail but is working at full pace to roll out its own blockchain networks and central bank digital currencies.
This will give the state unprecedented control over digital finance within its borders. It could even extend overseas, considering the number of nations electing to trade with China in yuan after ditching the dollar.
However, through Hong Kong, “Beijing has also been able to carve out a niche in the free-wheeling global markets for digital assets that would compete with other free-market financial hubs.”
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Politico reported that the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, is owned by a Hong Kong-based company.
Furthermore, regulators in Hong Kong are pressuring large banks in the region to provide banking services to crypto exchanges. This is the complete opposite of the US and UK, where banks can and will sever services for customers dealing with crypto exchanges.
HSBC, the region’s largest bank, has also begun offering clients access to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
The Hong Kong rating agency HKVAC has also announced its virtual asset index offering a wide range of tradable crypto assets.
Asia Racing Ahead
Politico reported that China is betting on crypto to disrupt money and finance, and American regulators are playing into its hands.
“In effect, the existence of Hong Kong allows the Chinese Communist Party to exert internal financial controls on the mainland while impeding capital flight to bet on the potential of global crypto networks to disrupt money and finance.”
The crypto move is not only happening in China and Hong Kong. Japan and Singapore are also in the race to become crypto hubs in their own right.
Meanwhile, other Asian nations, such as Thailand, are hoping that a new government and political reform will pave the way for crypto adoption.
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