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Hong Kong Doubles Down on Crypto Regulation With Staff Hires
The securities regulator wants to hire staff for market surveillance and enforcement investigations.
Feb 4, 2025, 1:04 p.m.
What to know:
- Hong Kong's SFC wants to add eight roles to support its crypto regulation regimes.
- Hong Kong started licensing crypto firms in 2023 and is working toward a stablecoins regime.
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is looking to increase its headcount, with more than half the added roles dedicated to regulating crypto, according to a two-year budget plan presented to the Legislative Council, the region's legislative body known as Legco.
Despite freezing its headcount in three of the five financial years since 2020, it is looking to add another 15 people, eight of whom will be dedicated to crypto as the regulator furthers its commitment to regulate the industry.
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"Eight of the proposed new headcount is for enhancing the staffing support for virtual asset regulatory regimes, market surveillance and enforcement investigations," the budget presented on Monday said.
The growth comes as Hong Kong's administration faces a budget deficit that is forecast to reach $HK100 million ($13 million) this year and is likely to announce budget cuts later this month, the South China Morning Post reported.
In June 2023, Hong Kong initiated a new licensing regime for crypto companies. Last year it said it would also license stablecoin providers. The country's stablecoin bill is still being discussed.
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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.
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