Hong Kong's financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, is set to permit professional investors to engage in crypto derivatives trading, significantly broadening the territory's virtual asset market, as reported by China Daily. The crypto derivatives market is substantially larger than spot trading, with data from TokenInsight indicating that it reached $21 trillion in volume in the first quarter, compared to $4.6 trillion for spot trading. Industry stakeholders have been advocating for Hong Kong to authorize crypto derivatives trading for some time.
Earlier this year, Deribit's Chief Commercial Officer, Jean-David Péquignot, noted in an interview with the South China Morning Post that regulations for crypto derivatives were a crucial missing element in Hong Kong's legislative framework. Recently, the city's legislative council passed a bill that would enable the licensing of stablecoins, marking a significant development in the region's financial landscape.