Hong Kong currency circle illustration: tearing, confrontation and integration

Author: Zhou Zhou, Foresight News

In 2025, the tearing feeling in the Hong Kong currency circle became increasingly obvious.

“Every day, traditional financial institutions come to us to discuss Crypto business. We are also trying to promote new businesses to platforms such as Youtube and X to find influential KOLs to cooperate with bloggers.” When a brokerage practitioner talked about the expansion of his crypto business, his tone was full of enthusiasm and expectations.

On the other hand, an employee of a blockchain company who had just joined the company and chose to leave shortly after he joined the company, said in a low tone: “I’m leaving, I can’t stand this state-owned enterprise style.”

In the same Hong Kong and the same cryptocurrency ecosystem, some people feel the excitement and opportunities brought by the upward economic growth of the industry; some people feel the burnout and loss brought by the friction between the system and culture.The dramatic tear is happening every day.

On the one hand, almost all mainstream Hong Kong brokerages have already entered the cryptocurrency business.The latest statistics show that Hong Kong has more than 40 brokerages, more than 35 fund companies, more than 10 large banks and large accounting firms involved in virtual asset business.For example, Futuniu, the largest technology broker in Hong Kong, provided virtual asset trading services such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to customers as early as August last year. By the end of last year, its average daily trading volume had exceeded US$35 million.

From securities companies, funds, banks, audits and insurance, Hong Kong’s mainstream financial institutions are in an orderly and comprehensive manner to incorporate cryptocurrencies into Hong Kong’s financial system.This has made some financial practitioners who have crossed the border into the cryptocurrency industry feel the long-lost atmosphere of innovation and a kind of “beauty of the upward economic development of the industry.”

However, on the other hand, Crypto Native, partly joined the compliance company, is experiencing a profound disillusionment—a decentralized utopia that once believed is constantly colliding with real regulatory, compliance and financial logic.It is becoming a difficult contradiction for them to resolve both their “style” and “tongue” and their desire to get a share of the compliance industry.

Fusion

The Hong Kong cryptocurrency industry is gradually nurturing and integrating three major cultures.

The first culture is Crypto Native.

For example, early Hong Kong compliant cryptocurrency exchanges such as HashKey and OSL have attracted many Crypto Native practitioners who have switched jobs from companies such as Huobi, Bybit, Binance, etc., which makes the cultural background of these companies still relatively “native” and maintains an open, flexible and market-first atmosphere.

Similar to Digital Native, Crypto Native is well versed in the world on the chain and naturally has the sensitivity and creativity to crypto culture. He believes that decentralization and technology have no borders.However, at present, Crypto Native practitioners seem to be constantly being diluted, and more practitioners of Internet finance and traditional finance have entered this industry and quickly dominate the compliance framework.

The second type is Internet financial culture.

Futu, Ant Group, Ant Digital Technology, JD.com, etc. are all typical representatives.With mature online operations and user growth experience, they are actively entering Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency market.Among them, some have been well integrated into Hong Kong’s mainstream financial culture.Take Futu Niu Niu as an example. As the largest Internet brokerage firm in Hong Kong, it not only firmly occupies the market online, but also opens 6 offline physical stores in the most prosperous neighborhoods in Hong Kong, showing a strong combination of Internet finance genes and localization.

During the visit to offline physical stores in Hong Kong, a Futu offline employee enthusiastically helped me open a US stock account and told the author that she receives about 100 customers who come to consult US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, cryptocurrencies and other services every week.”Currently, Hong Kong household registration can handle cryptocurrency services, but mainland ID cards cannot,” the employee said.

It is reported that the number of registered users of Futu Holdings has exceeded 26.25 million, of which Futu Niu Niu Niu has penetrated more than 50% of the adult population in Hong Kong.The massive number of existing users gives them a natural advantage in the Hong Kong cryptocurrency market.An industry insider revealed that cryptocurrency transactions for Futu Hong Kong users are currently based on HashKey Exchange’s underlying trading system, which has accounted for a considerable proportion of the overall trading volume of HashKey Exchange.

In addition to Futu, Ant and JD.com are also competing for the “Hong Kong Crypto Circle”.However, unlike Futu’s focus on the field of cryptocurrency exchanges, Ant and JD.com are more focused on the stablecoin and public chain tracks.Futu already has a license, and whether Ant and JD.com will get the license is still an unknown.

The Hong Kong cryptocurrency industry is not a fully market-oriented competition track, but more like a place to compete for resources. It requires a license to be available.An industry insider revealed that Chinese banks are more likely to obtain the first batch of stablecoin licenses.

The third culture is Hong Kong’s traditional financial culture.For example, HSBC, Bank of China Hong Kong, Victory Securities, etc.They have a longer historical culture in Hong Kong’s financial industry, some of which have foreign backgrounds in Hong Kong, some have Chinese backgrounds in Hong Kong, and some have local family backgrounds in Hong Kong.They have also added all kinds of cultures to the Hong Kong cryptocurrency industry.

Today, Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency industry has developed a legal industrial chain covering hundreds of financial institutions – from securities companies, funds, banks, audits, and insurance companies, every link operates under the compliance framework.

From a regional and background perspective, this industrial chain covers foreign capital, Chinese capital and local institutions; from a technical and institutional perspective, it brings together Crypto Native, Internet financial companies and traditional financial institutions.Together they form a diversified ecosystem of Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency industry and support the steady development of the local crypto asset market.

The tear and fusion between different cultures is shaping this new industry.

The Hong Kong currency circle is no longer a simply defined existence. It is already a unique and complex system covering more than 100 Hong Kong financial institutions.

Tear: Human joys and sorrows are not in harmony

The same Hong Kong and the same ecosystem, but everyone’s feelings about the Hong Kong currency circle are completely different.

Some practitioners think that the compliant Hong Kong currency circle is releasing a kind of upward economic beauty.

For example, in some traditional financial practitioners who have just crossed the border into the crypto industry, such as companies that have already applied for exchanges or stablecoin licenses, and Internet finance giants who have a large number of users and can open up the market by just getting a license… They have shown a strong momentum.

This is extremely obvious in recruiting people. For example, companies such as Futu, JD.com, and Shengli Securities have shown a strong desire for talents in the market and are poaching people at prices higher than the market price.

However, some practitioners think that the Hong Kong currency circle has entered a phased stock market and has entered a downward cycle.Hong Kong’s leading crypto-makers have not found a good way to make a big cake, and they can only enter a vicious cycle of grabbing cakes.

“Yes, I’m leaving, I can’t stand this state-owned enterprise style.” said an employee of a public chain with a large organization background who had just joined.

“Without much subjective initiative, you must first look at supervision when doing anything.” Faced with the question of obvious changes in work content from the native cryptocurrency industry to the compliant cryptocurrency industry, a middle and senior manager of a crypto-compliant exchange answered.

There are also some practitioners’ sense of tearing that comes from the huge cultural and institutional differences between Crypto Native and the compliance circle.

The latest incident that caused many “dissatisfaction” of Crypto Native was the Hong Kong Stablecoin Act, which officially came into effect on August 1, 2025.”I have never seen any stablecoin. It requires KYC, and it has never seen any stablecoin. It requires a VPN restriction. How can this innovate and develop?” a practitioner complained.

For practitioners who have grown up in Crypto and blockchain cultures, they are used to life driven by code and community, and now Hong Kong’s compliant cryptocurrency industry is driven by policies, which essentially forms two ecosystems.However, many practitioners are still not prepared to switch perspectives and positions from different ecology.

The cryptocurrency industry with Hong Kong’s characteristics is experiencing the pain of a forced integration led by policies.This pain not only concerns the running-in between policies and systems, but also deeply touches on the conflict and reconciliation between traditional financial culture, Internet financial culture and encrypted native culture.

Opportunity: Is anyone making a fortune in silence?

At the beginning of a new system, there are often opportunities for early participants to “make a fortune in silence.”They got the first share of the cross-border pie.

For example, at the beginning of the birth of stablecoins, Tether increased trading volume by 100 times within one year. In 2017, the annual trading volume exceeded US$10 billion, in 2020, and in 2024, it exceeded US$10 trillion.For example, at the beginning of Binance’s birth, the daily trading volume in the first two months exceeded US$100 million, the daily trading volume in the fourth month exceeded US$1 billion, and the daily trading volume in the sixth month exceeded US$5 billion.

Of course, there are no companies in Hong Kong that have such rapid growth in business, but this does not mean that no companies have taken advantage of the first wave of dividends in the process.

“Recently, traditional financial institutions have come here every day to discuss Crypto business with us. We are also trying to promote new businesses to platforms such as Youtube and X, and we are also looking for influential KOLs to cooperate with bloggers.” said a Hong Kong brokerage practitioner who is involved in the cryptocurrency business.

“As Hong Kong embraces cryptocurrencies, hundreds of Web3 companies have settled in Hong Kong, and consulting law firms are required to consult policies, apply for various licenses, and develop various businesses. This provides a large amount of business demand for some law firms that focus on cryptocurrency compliance.” said a crypto practitioner who is familiar with law firms.

“Every Web3 company that wants to develop in Hong Kong for a long time will apply for a bank account for a Hong Kong company, which generates a lot of transactions here, which also brings a lot of business to banks that value this business in the early stage, such as ZhongAn Bank,” said a practitioner from a Hong Kong compliance exchange.

The opportunities in the Hong Kong cryptocurrency industry may not only lie in the exchanges, asset management and stablecoin companies that people traditionally think of. Institutions that provide “water sellers” services in the development of the Hong Kong crypto industry are often also an important part of the benefits.

And those companies that are truly making a fortune in silence are often known to the public several years later.

Hong Kong currency circle from different perspectives

“For Crypto Native, Hong Kong’s compliance crypto companies are innovating too slowly, and they are a bit like bureaucrats or even state-owned enterprises; for traditional Hong Kong financial institutions, this year’s innovative KPI may have exceeded the standard,” said a middle and senior manager of a crypto-compliant exchange.

From different perspectives, Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency industry has shown completely different appearances.

For practitioners who have grown up in Crypto and blockchain culture, they are used to everything driven by code and community.However, today’s Hong Kong crypto industry is driven by policies.There is no longer a rash atmosphere here, the edge of innovation is weakened, replaced by compliance stability and restraint.Many Crypto Natives feel that Hong Kong’s compliance is “castrating” the original creativity of the currency circle, and this rejection reaction leaves them at a loss.

For some practitioners who are accustomed to security and stable pace in the traditional financial industry, Hong Kong Crypto’s innovation pace is not slow and is developing in an orderly manner.Slow is fast; fast is slow.

And practitioners who are in the torrent of this era can only adapt.Whether you love or resist, the torrent of history will eventually roll forward.

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