Hong Kong Needs to Catch Up With Singapore in Web3, Animoca CEO Says
By Kelsey Cheng
(Doha, Qatar) — Animoca Brands Corp. is working with the Hong Kong government to help the financial hub advance its Web3 ecosystem and catch up to Singapore, said Robby Yung, CEO of the blockchain game developer.
“In the post-Covid period, Singapore made a tremendous amount of headway in attracting a lot of companies in the Web3 community to set up there,” Yung told Caixin on Feb. 25 on the sidelines of Web Summit Qatar.
But Hong Kong has been rapidly catching up, he said, adding that the city is well positioned to develop its Web3 ecosystem as the sector is very popular not only in Southeast Asia, but also in East Asian countries such as South Korea and China.
“The city — in our view — is the historical financial capital for Asia. So, we think it should continue to play that role in the future of finance and capital, which we think is very much based on Web3 technology,” Yung said.
The Hong Kong-headquartered company is working with the government to promote the city as the destination for all things Web3, the executive said, which includes helping it issue a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin.
Web3 is catch-all term for the idea that the next stage in the development of the internet will driven by blockchain technology.
Apart from developing digital assets, Animoca is focused on building its metaverse business and investing in Web3 companies, with gaming firms taking up around 30% of its investment portfolio of more than 540 firms as of December.
The stablecoin project, announced last month, involves establishing a joint venture with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Ltd. to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to issue the stablecoin.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to hold steady in value relative to a government-issued currency or other reference asset, like the U.S. dollar or gold. They were invented to enable traders to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on centralized exchanges. Stablecoins such as Tether aim to provide price stability and make them useful for cross-border payments, remittances and savings.
While stablecoins have yet to reach mass adoption, the number of digital wallet addresses around the world holding stablecoins reached more than 151 million as of Wednesday, up 61% from a year earlier, according to data from rwa.xyz, a virtual asset database provider.
“Having a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin can demonstrate that this kind of global institutional product can be done in Hong Kong, and that Hong Kong is a serious place to do this kind of business,” Yung said.
Animoca’s partnership with the Hong Kong government comes as the city is ramping up efforts to become a global hub in the digital asset space in an attempt to restore the city’s allure. The city has been building a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency trading since late 2022.
Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
caixinglobal.com is the English-language online news portal of Chinese financial and business news media group Caixin. Global Neighbours is authorized to reprint this article.
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