<div id="readability-page-1">Gold can serve as a “potential bridge” between conventional and new forms of finance, Hong Kong’s treasury minister has said, highlighting the need for the city to provide more opportunities for the digital asset market to grow. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu also said on Wednesday that Hong Kong had opted against forming a separate regulatory authority for digital assets due to the “convergence” between conventional and innovative finance. During a panel session on cryptocurrencies and digital assets at the Global Prosperity Summit, Hui said he had seen not only gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in conventional markets, but also tokenised versions available on the blockchain. “For this market to grow sustainably, and as a market builder, we need to harness the good and one way of doing this is to give this market more opportunities that are otherwise not available,” he said. “I think gold could be a potential bridge between conventional and new finance, in the sense of applying blockchain to a rather old asset class.” HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Investment launched a tokenised, unlisted class of the Hang Seng Gold ETF on the HashKey Exchange virtual asset trading platform in April, in what the bank said was the city’s first such product. The development came amid a wider push by authorities to develop Hong Kong as both a gold trading hub and a leading innovator in digital assets and fintech. Earlier this year, the city government said a central clearing system for gold was on track to begin trial operations within the year, while storage capacity for the precious metal would also increase by more than 10 times. Hong Kong has also developed a robust regulatory framework as it seeks to expand its digital asset framework to encompass stablecoins, tokenisation and a broader Web3 infrastructure. Asked during Wednesday’s event about balancing regulation with innovation, Hui said he had observed a “convergence” between innovators and those from the conventional finance and banking sectors surrounding digital assets. “For the innovators, they now increasingly, and rightly so, come to realise that they need applications for the technology to be utilised and for the benefits to be seen,” he said. “At the same time for conventional banking … they also think that there is a pressure, either from the customers or internally, that they need to innovate.”  Hui argued the government had “foreseen” this convergence happening early on, which was why authorities decided against establishing a separate regulatory authority specifically for digital assets in the same way some other jurisdictions had done. “If you have a separate regulator, which is very much detached from the daily regulation of the conventional market, basically you make the synergy very difficult,” he said. Mark Boris Andrijanic, a board member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, outlined possible areas for cooperation between the EU and Hong Kong in financial regulations and artificial intelligence during a separate panel on trade. Andrijanic, who formerly served as Slovenia’s first minister for digital transformation, told reporters after the panel that Hong Kong was one of the most “progressive places” for financial regulations, with “incredibly forward-looking governance”. “So this is something where we can take a lot of inspiration from Hong Kong,” he said, highlighting the EU’s plan for a digital euro. The Global Prosperity Summit is an annual event organised by the Savantas Policy Institute, the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. During the final panel of the summit on Wednesday, which covered Hong Kong’s positioning within the space industry, panellists urged the government to establish a centralised “space office” or similar body that could help facilitate strategic planning within the sector. “There are many stakeholders with diverse backgrounds, and that kind of strategic coordination is very important for us to all act and make efforts more effectively,” said Gao Yang, director of the InnoHK Hong Kong Space Robotics and Energy Centre. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the government’s key decision-making Executive Council and Savantas Institute founder, lent weight to the need for more coordination within the industry as she recapped her overall feelings of the two-day summit. “I think my particular takeaway is the urgency to set up a space office, so that Hong Kong can play a role in the burgeoning space economy,” she said. </div>

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<p>Hong Kong's treasury minister, Christopher Hui, stated that gold could act as a bridge between traditional and new finance, emphasizing the need for growth in the digital asset market. He noted the decision against a separate regulatory authority for digital assets, citing convergence with conventional finance. The city aims to enhance its role in gold trading and digital innovation, with plans for a central clearing system and increased storage capacity for gold. Hui highlighted the importance of synergy between innovators and traditional banking.</p>

SCMP

SD-GOLD

Zijin Mining

ZHONGJIN GOLD

iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners

GLOBAL X Gold Explorers

EFUND GOLD MI ETF

Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 2X

SPDR Gold Minishares

Us Gbl GLD & Met

ChinaAMC Gold ETF

ChinaAMC CSI SH-SZ-HK Gold Industry Equity ETF

EFUND GOLD MI-R

EFUND GOLD MI-U

HSBC HOLDINGS

HSBC

HS GOLD ETF

HASHKEY HLDGS

HSBC 5xShortSG241213

HSBC Holdings Plc

Hong Kong minister touts gold as ‘bridge between conventional and new finance’