Tron’s Justin Sun Says China Sees Hong Kong As Crypto Policy Trial

Sidhartha Shukla and Yvonne Man, Bloomberg News

A tram featuring an advertisement with the city's skyline in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Hong Kong’s leader said the city had no plans for a citywide lockdown to help bring cases back to zero, even as she acknowledged that a growing omicron outbreak has exceeded its capacity to respond. Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Regulators in China are monitoring Hong Kong’s approach to build it into a leading Asian cryptocurrency hub and see it as a policy test for the mainland, according to Tron founder Justin Sun.

“Right now they are using Hong Kong as an experiment base so they can see all the feedback, all the results, once they adopt crypto,” Sun said in a Bloomberg TV interview from Singapore. “That’s why I’m super bullish and looking forward to seeing the results of all the Hong Kong crypto policy.”

China’s maintained its strict crackdown on cryptocurrencies that’s outlawed raising of funds through initial coin offerings and banned exchanges. Hong Kong, meantime, has laid out plans to embrace digital assets by offering retail trading and exchange traded funds in an attempt to boost the city’s credentials as a leading Asian financial center.

As the global industry reels from the collapse of FTX and a plunge this year in token prices, Hong Kong appears to be holding firm and has indicated that recent crises demonstrate the need for rule books offering guidance on compliance and investor protection.

“Hong Kong right now is in a very embrace crypto mode,” said Sun, the founder of Tron, a public blockchain. “I think not only this marks basically the opening up of crypto in Hong Kong but also opening up overall crypto policy in China.”

--With assistance from David Ingles and Rishaad Salamat.