HONG KONG — The first day of consensus in Hong Kong ended with the promise of new crypto-related financial products in the special administrative region of China.
Hong Kong’s chief executive and financial secretary as well as the CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission all outlined their regulatory priorities, saying Hong Kong would begin issuing stablecoin licenses next month, publish a framework for perpetual contracts and otherwise work to develop the local crypto economy.
Finance Secretary Paul Chan said he sees AI as one of the few trends maturing at this point: “As AI agents become capable of making and executing decisions independently of AI, we could begin to see the first forms of what some call the machine economy, where AI agents can hold and transfer digital assets, pay for services, and transact with each other on-chain. »
Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci said he would stick to a prediction that bitcoin would reach $150,000, indicating legislation being negotiated in the United States
“I think once this legislation passes, it will open the door to a flood of activity in financial centers and banks in the United States,” he said. “If we are only in a four-year cycle, then bitcoin will start to rally at the end of the year, starting in the fourth quarter.”
Consensys’ Joe Lubin said that Ethereum is anti-fragile, which is important for a decentralized foundation capable of supporting more decentralized finance (DeFi), which would allow developers to “build and rearchitect the world’s systems essentially on stronger financial and trust foundations.”
“DeFi is about as secure as traditional finance,” he said.
Nigel Feetham, Gibraltar’s Minister of Justice, Trade and Industry, said smaller jurisdictions regulating crypto are focused on security and market integrity.
“We’re keen to protect our reputation, because all it takes is one market failure, if I can put it that way, and clearly everyone suffers. Once you’re licensed in a jurisdiction, you become a stakeholder, and so we have an obligation to make sure we take care of all of our stakeholders.”
Recent market developments have also attracted the attention of stakeholders.
Bitmine’s Tom Lee, whose company is sitting on an unrealized loss of nearly $8 billion thanks to its ether holdings, said people “should think about the opportunities here instead of selling.”
“Gold is a meme,” said Jordi Alexander of Selini.
The final day of Consensus will see panels focused on scaling the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana blockchains with a keynote address from Zak Folkman of World Liberty Financial and a fireside chat with Chairman of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, Bilal Bin Saqib.
