Hong Kong eyes tax breaks for crypto, more trading platform licenses by year-end: officials

A top financial officer in Hong Kong said that the government plans to extend existing tax concessions for privately offered funds and family offices to cover crypto investments.

Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, said in a speech today at Hong Kong Fintech Week that the government plans to extend tax concessions for particular investments, including those in cryptocurrencies, by the end of this year.

“Hopefully, by expanding the availability of tax concessions to this wider scope of assets eligible under our fund regime and our family office regime, we will be able to add that extra impetus and pull to this [Hong Kong] market on their development front,” Hui said.

Hong Kong has rolled out the welcome mat for crypto firms. In June 2023, it officially started a crypto licensing regime for crypto trading platforms, allowing licensed exchanges to offer retail trading services. The regulator has so far granted three licenses to OSL Exchange, HashKey Exchange and HKVAX.

At the event on Monday, Paul Chan, Hong Kong's financial secretary, also  said that the Securities and Futures Commission is actively assessing crypto asset trading platform applications and that “we expect more licenses will be issued in the next couple of months.”

Chan said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the region’s de facto central bank, also plans to introduce stablecoin-related legislation this year following the HKMA’s March launch of its stablecoin regulatory sandbox .

According to Chan, the government is also reviewing the design of over-the-counter trading regulations and will release the second round of consultation next year before introducing the licensing regime for crypto custodian service providers.