The strictest ban comes in the crypto sector. On February 6, eight authorities, including the People's Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), jointly issued the Notice on Further Preventing and Resolving the Risks Related to Virtual Currencies (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The Notice once again makes clear that business activities related to virtual currencies are illegal financial activities and are strictly prohibited and resolutel

The Eastern Magistrates’ Courts today sentenced Mr Ng Ka Hei to 220 hours of community service following his conviction of false trading in the shares of six Hong Kong-listed companies in a criminal prosecution brought by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) (Notes 1 to 3). The Court also ordered Ng to pay a fine of $117,715, a sum equivalent to the total profit he made from his false trading activities, and to pay the SFC’s full investigation costs of $199,669. Betwee

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today issued new guidance to extend virtual asset (VA) services to margin financing for licensed brokers providing VA dealing services (VA brokers), and to set out a high-level framework to guide virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) in developing proposals for VA‑related leveraged products intended for professional investors. As part of its latest measures to expand product and service diversity under the ASPIRe Roadmap (N

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has obtained an order from the Court of First Instance requiring Mr Andrew Liu, a former non-executive director of Arta TechFin Corporation Limited (Arta TechFin) (known as Freeman Financial Corporation Limited at the material time), and Mr Quincy Hui Kwong Hei, former managing director of Arta TechFin, to compensate the company $57.5 million over the financial loss they caused from its acquisition and disposal of a stake in Liu’s H

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Kylin International (HK) Co., Limited (Kylin) $9 million for multiple failures in managing private funds over a period of three years (Notes 1 and 2). The SFC found that while acting as the investment manager or consultant for six sub-funds of a Cayman-incorporated fund between August 2018 and July 2021, Kylin failed to fulfil its regulatory obligations in five key areas. First, Kylin failed to manage and

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today convened the third meeting of the Digital Asset Consultative Panel (DACP), bringing together SFC-licensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) to discuss forthcoming regulatory developments for digital assets in Hong Kong. At the meeting, participants discussed initiatives aimed at strengthening the digital asset ecosystem, including regulatory measures to enhance liquidity on licensed VATPs and to expand the range of produ

This circular sets out the Securities and Futures Commission’s ( SFC ) regulatory approach and expected standards for SFC-licensed virtual asset trading platform operators ( Platform Operators ) to allow an affiliated company to engage in market making activities on their virtual asset trading platforms ( VATPs ). Background Liquidity on Hong Kong’s VATPs remains subdued at the current stage of digital asset market development. Under Pillar A (Access) of its ASPIRe roadmap,

On January 28, 2026, the Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued a joint staff statement on tokenized securities (the “Statement”). The staff defines tokenized securities as traditional securities issued or represented as crypto assets on a blockchain and reiterated that existing U.S. federal securities laws apply regardless of whether a security is recorded traditional

Saxo Bank faces a DKK 313,000,000 (49.7 million) administrative fine from Denmark’s financial watchdog after supervisors flagged anti-money laundering weaknesses in its institutional operations. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority issued the fine after finding that Saxo Bank breached its regulations between 2021 and 2023. “The administrative fine is based on the company's failure to comply with the requirements for obtaining information regarding the purpose and intend