China Central Television aired a segment on Tuesday involving virtual assets, which garnered attention from around the world.
The segment, which is just over a minute long, features bitcoin, nonfungible tokens and is titled “Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission: Implementing a mandatory licensing system for virtual asset trading platforms from June 1.”
Hong Kong financial regulator the Securities and Futures Commission concluded its consultation on regulating virtual asset trading platforms on Tuesday, which will become effective on June 1.
Guidelines include safe custody of assets, segregation of clients’ assets and cybersecurity standards among other mandates, according to a statement.
The SFC also noted that it “has yet to approve any virtual asset trading platform to provide services to retail investors and most virtual asset trading platforms currently accessible by the public are not regulated by the SFC.”
“Hong Kong’s comprehensive virtual assets regulatory framework follows the principle of ‘same business, same risks, same rules’ and aims to provide robust investor protection and manage key risks. This will enable the industry to develop sustainably and support innovation,” said Julia Leung, the SFC’s chief executive officer in a press release.
Notably, crypto is banned in mainland China.
“It’s a big deal”
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted out the news segment from China Central Television calling it a “big deal.”
“CCTV (China Central Television) just broadcasted crypto. It’s a big deal. The Chinese speaking communities are buzzing. Historically, coverages like these led to bull runs. Not saying past predicts the future. And not financial advice.”
Binance Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann called it “predictable.”
“This is massive, but was predictable IMHO. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Steam, Netflix were banned in China shortly before Chinese homegrown versions were brought to market. China was always going to embrace crypto, they just wanted to set themselves up to dominate the market, Hillmann tweeted.
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