In brief
- Providers must use cold wallets with air gapped hardware, apply whitelisting and among other requirements, the regulator said Friday.
- A separate public consultation would license custodians of client assets and transfer tools, including private keys.
- The new standards sit under its broader roadmap for regulating digital assets and aims to strengthen trust and regional competitiveness.
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has set stricter custody expectations for licensed virtual asset trading platforms, positioning those requirements as the baseline for a forthcoming licensing regime that would cover standalone virtual asset custodians.
The move, said to be for the protection of client assets, was done in order for…