Hong Kong is proceeding with plans to issue its first stablecoin licenses in March of this year, according to the city’s financial secretary.
That said, Hong Kong plans to only issue a small batch of licenses initially given ongoing reservations among the Chinese government in Beijing.
Hong Kong plans to introduce legislation this summer that will oversee and regulate stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies tied to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar or price of gold.
The plans to issue licenses for stablecoins in Hong Kong comes amid an ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrencies by the Chinese government.
China has outlawed crypto mining and put restrictions on the trading of digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Nevertheless, authorities in Hong Kong, which is a Special Administrative Region of China, see the development of stablecoins as part of the evolution of the crypto sector.
They also say that China must have stablecoins in circulation to keep up with the U.S., where companies such as Circle Internet Group (CRCL) are already issuing the crypto variant.
Hong Kong has said in the past that it wants to become a world centre for cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin, the largest crypto by market capitalization, is currently trading at $66,900 U.S.
