Share this article
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Declares Now Is the 'Right Time' for Web3 Adoption
Finance chief Paul Chan said in a blog post that despite recent volatility in crypto, now is the time to push forward Web3 technologies.
By Cam Thompson
Updated Apr 10, 2023, 5:57 p.m. Published Apr 10, 2023, 4:21 p.m.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said Sunday in a blog post that although crypto markets have been highly volatile, it’s the “right time” to push Web3 adoption in the Chinese administrative region.
Chan said that in planning Hong Kong's budget he identified Web3 technologies as one of three focus areas to target.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The secretary said the cryptocurrency industry reminds him of the early days of the internet in the 2000s, with a large “bubble” that burst and weeded out players. As a result, the market was quieter and real-world use cases could be promoted.
“In order for Web3 to steadily take the road of innovative development, we will adopt a strategy that emphasizes both ‘proper regulation’ and ‘promoting development,’” said Chan. “In terms of proper supervision, in addition to ensuring financial security and preventing systemic risks, we will also do a good job in investor education and protection, and anti-money laundering.”
Chan noted that Hong Kong will host the Digital Economy Summit this week, a two-day event with a focus on analyzing the adoption of Web3 technologies at a state and global level.
Hong Kong officials have been laying plans to accelerate the adoption of Web3 and cryptocurrency. In February, Chan set aside $6.4 million of Hong Kong’s annual budget to be put towards investing in Web3 technologies.
Early Monday morning, crypto exchange Bitget created a $100 million fund to focus on Asian countries adopting Web3 technologies because, it said, regulations in the U.S. have forced many companies to look overseas. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s recent licensing changes for crypto exchanges are considered a possible positive sign for growth in Asia.
Read more: Yat Siu Says ‘Pro-Capitalist’ Asian Countries Are More Ready to Embrace Web3
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase, Chainlink Introduce Base-Solana Bridge to Link Ecosystems
The bridge, secured by Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, allows users to trade and interact with Solana-based tokens on Base-based dapps.
What to know:
- A new bridge connecting Base, the layer 2 incubated by Coinbase, and the Solana blockchain is now live on mainnet, enabling asset transfers between the two ecosystems.
- The bridge, secured by Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, allows users to trade and interact with Solana-based tokens on Base-based decentralized applications.
- The open-source bridge on GitHub enables developers to integrate cross-chain support, marking a step toward interconnected blockchains and "always-on" capital markets, with more chains expected to be linked in the future.
Top Stories
