CEO Jeremy Allaire of Circle, the issuer of USDC, said that Asia is a key market for the stablecoin, as there is a strong demand for digital assets that are pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Hong Kong has taken a significant step towards becoming a crypto hub by approving retail crypto trading on June 1. To strengthen its position in the area, Circle is closely monitoring the legislative progress in the city-state.
The CEO said that “Hong Kong is looking to establish itself as a very significant center for digital assets markets and stablecoins and we are paying very close attention to that”.
The cryptocurrency sector is closely following the legislative changes in Hong Kong because they may have a big influence on the expansion of the markets in Greater China.
Circle’s CEO’s comments came just weeks after the company received a Major Payment Institution license in Singapore, which will allow it to distribute USDC more fully in the region.
Allaire believes that no single market will become dominant in the crypto space. All markets, including those in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, the UAE, Paris, and London, he claimed, are “moving forward in parallel” and none will “win at the expense of another.” Despite this, he says that each of these marketplaces “serves different dimensions of the economic system.”
Allaire sees the crypto space as a “multi-polar” market, with different markets serving different needs. He claims that Singapore is a great example of a market that is focused on institutional adoption, whereas Hong Kong is an outstanding example of a country that is focused on retail adoption. In the years to come, he predicts that each of these markets will grow and evolve.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire is confident that stablecoins like USDC will not be regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC’s regulatory reach may extend to some stablecoins, but payment tokens like USDC are not securities and will not be regulated by the SEC.
HSBC, Hong Kong’s largest bank, made a major move in the crypto space yesterday by announcing that it would begin offering Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs to its clients. This is a major win for Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency sector, which just saw the implementation of several new rules.
