Hong Kong Just Passed the Cryptocurrency Bill. Here's What Entrepreneurs Should Do

On May 21, the second the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the coin offering bill in the third reading, the comments in the crypto trading group next door went completely crazy

Author: Shao Jiayi

On May 21, the second the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the coin offering bill in the third reading, the comments in the crypto trading group next door went completely crazy:

"The licensing era has officially begun, and small players have no chance to play!"

“Issuing stablecoins now? If you are not brave enough, don't do it!"

“PayFi is the real gold mine. If we don't act now, all the soup will be gone!”

There was a mixture of noise, anxiety, and excitement. But the real Web3 veterans were unusually calm at this moment. They knew that the passage of the ordinance was not the end, but the moment when the new rules of the game started. When those giant stablecoin issuers began to line up to apply for the "Hong Kong ID card", a deep and quiet wealth restructuring drama around the stablecoin ecosystem had just begun.

Entrepreneurs, don't just watch the giants fight, open your eyes and look under their feet - countless new tracks are opening up there, waiting for you to grab a spot and make money!

Stablecoin "dealing game": hell mode is on, and the novice village is closed!

Let's be frank: If you are still thinking about "getting rich overnight by issuing a stablecoin in Hong Kong", I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible. This track has been locked into a "copy exclusively for krypton gold players". What is the specific difficulty? Let me count for you:

(I) Sandbox players: the "chosen ones" who have been ahead for two years

The regulatory sandbox of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is like a "stablecoin preschool". As early as two years ago, a group of "top students" were recruited for training, such as JD's stablecoin project and Yuanbi's stablecoin project. These players have polished the system development, compliance process, and risk control system in the sandbox. Once the regulations are implemented, they will directly "graduate" with a license, which is equivalent to being two laps ahead of the newcomers. How can you, a small team that has just entered the market, compete with them? They have written tens of thousands of lines of code, and you are still studying how to pass the compliance review. The gap is even greater than that between the top scorer in the college entrance examination and the poor student.

(II) Devil’s Clauses: Specially Designed to Cure All Kinds of “Garage Startup” Fantasies

The "sufficient financial resources" written in the regulations are no joke. For example, if you want to issue a stablecoin in Hong Kong, the registered capital alone must be 25 million Hong Kong dollars, and you must have proof of sustained profitability - this one item can block 99% of grassroots entrepreneurs. Not to mention "setting up a local physical company", you have to rent an office in Hong Kong, hire a compliance team, and support technical personnel, and the cost alone is several million per year. This is not entrepreneurship, it's clearly a "money-burning competition"! Think about the days when USDT could start in a garage, which are long gone. Now it's a "financial aristocratic game". Don't touch it if you don't have a lot of money.

(III) Supervision is so detailed that it can lead to failure if one is not careful.

In the past, when issuing stablecoins, some "sexy operations" might be done secretly, such as holding up the reserve fund if it was insufficient, but this is no longer possible. The regulations require that the reserve assets must be 100% equal, and can only be used to buy highly liquid assets such as cash and short-term government bonds. Want to use stocks or real estate to make up for the number? No way! What's more terrible is that the custodian and the issuer must be strictly separated, and the audit must be real-time and transparent - to put it bluntly, every penny of your money must be put on the table for supervision to watch, and even the two decimal places cannot be wrong. If you don't have a professional financial team and technical system, problems will be found in minutes, and fines are light, and you may even have to face lawsuits.

(IV) Policy risks are more stimulating than cryptocurrency speculation, and ordinary people cannot afford it

Stablecoins involve monetary sovereignty. How can the Hong Kong government issue licenses casually? In the next few years, it will definitely be "pilot first, steady progress". Only a few companies may be approved each year, and the competition is as fierce as "thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge". Moreover, policies may change at any time. The business allowed today may be tightened tomorrow. You are a small team that has worked hard for a year, but in the end you didn't get a license, but