Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission's (SFC) Process Review Committee released its annual report, pointing out that the SFC took about 2.5 years to process a virtual asset trading platform license application. In order to promote the licensing process and facilitate the development of Hong Kong's financial technology, while maintaining investor protection, the SFC recommends simplifying the licensing process and strengthening market awareness of the new licensing system for virtual asset trading platforms, as well as enhancing industry education on the licensing system.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced that current CEO Charles Li Xiaojia has confirmed that he will not seek re-election after his term ends in May 2024. Current Co-Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Aguzin will become the next CEO of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a three-year term, and his appointment has been approved by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Another current Co-Chief Operating Officer, Calvin Tai, has been appointed as Deputy CEO of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Group. It is reported that during Charles Li's tenure, he and Calvin Tai supported the listing of Asia's first batch of cryptocurrency ETFs, including the Southern Dongying Bitcoin Futures ETF, the Southern Dongying Ethereum Futures ETF, and the Samsung Blockchain Technology ETF and Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF.

Tang Yi, the president of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association HKBA.club, stated at the Shenzhen Creative December Smart Valley Digital Art Exhibition that many member units of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association have recently obtained the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's No. 1 license (security token license), No. 7 license (virtual asset trading license), and No. 9 license (virtual asset management license). Hong Kong has financial advantages, and investors are looking for new investment opportunities including financial technology AI Web 3.0. However, Hong Kong lacks research and development talents in Web 3.0 and blockchain, while Shenzhen has made up for this deficiency. Shenzhen and Hong Kong can work together to develop and invest in the emerging industry of Web 3.0 digital cultural scenes.

On December 13th, it was reported that Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has released updated information for licensed individuals and registered institutions for the month of November. Among them, it was shown that C Capital Investment Management Limited, owned by Hong Kong real estate tycoon Zheng Zhigang, has obtained the 4th and 9th licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission. The 4th license is for providing advice on securities, while the 9th license is for asset management.

Deng Shengxing, the chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Analysts Association, suggested that the Hong Kong government issue green bonds, silver bonds and other bonds. In the future, many large-scale projects will also have the opportunity to raise funds through bond issuance. The Hong Kong government can consider issuing more bonds in the form of tokenization, which can deepen the public's understanding of virtual assets. He also pointed out that security tokens (STOs) must have substantial underlying assets, which can enhance the acceptability of security tokens and allow the general public to participate.

Li Weihong, a financial services sector legislator in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, said that some licensed companies have reported that their official websites have been imitated for promotion, and there have been multiple fraud cases in recent months. Some people in society believe that "many virtual assets are fake," so they hope to correct this statement. He pointed out that there is currently no problem with the regulation of virtual assets, and the public can verify whether a company is licensed through official channels.

On December 11th, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region High Court made an important ruling in the intellectual property lawsuit between X-SPOT GLOBAL LIMITED (plaintiff) and Huobi Global Limited (defendant). The plaintiff X-SPOT GLOBAL LIMITED successfully applied for a temporary injunction against the defendant to prevent them from using the "Huobi" trademark or any confusingly similar name or logo during the litigation trial in Hong Kong. The core of the case involves the plaintiff's trademark rights. The Hong Kong High Court ruled that the plaintiff's trademark rights should be protected and the defendant's actions constituted infringement of the plaintiff's trademark rights.<br>In June 2023, X-Spot Limited, controlled by Li Lin, sued Huobi Global Limited for trademark infringement in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region High Court. The complaint stated that X-Spot Limited has always retained exclusive rights to the "Huobi" trademark, and Huobi Global Limited has been using the trademark without authorization from X-Spot. When the original shareholders transferred their Huobi global station shares to About Capital Management, they explicitly agreed to retain the exclusive rights to the "Huobi" trademark and ensure that these rights would not be transferred to the buyer or Huobi. The equity transfer and asset delivery agreement between the two parties explicitly prohibits the buyer from using the "Huobi" trademark and brand.

Hong Kong police launched anti-money laundering operations codenamed "Hammer Strike" and "Conspiracy Attack" on the 8th, arresting a total of 12 people who are suspected of using large cash withdrawals and virtual currency transactions to launder HK $30 million in black money related to fraud cases.

According to reports from Ta Kung Pao, on the 8th, the Hong Kong police launched anti-money laundering operations codenamed "Hammer Strike" and "Mou Gong", arresting a total of 12 people who are suspected of laundering black money involving fraud cases amounting to about HKD 30 million through large cash withdrawals and virtual currency transactions.The police noticed that a large amount of criminal proceeds from fraud crimes flowed into local bank accounts from January to October this year. The Financial Intelligence and Investigation Division conducted a thorough investigation and found 32 cases of local and overseas telephone fraud and investment fraud crimes, involving 54 local bank accounts. The amount of losses suffered by the victims in the cases reached HKD 97 million, with the highest amount involved in a case exceeding HKD 2.4 million. After investigation, a local money laundering criminal group was identified, which recruited friends and relatives to open a large number of bank accounts. Through mobile dating applications, they lured victims to transfer money to the bank accounts involved in the case, and the members of the group quickly withdrew large amounts of cash after receiving the fraudulent funds, and then purchased and sold virtual currencies repeatedly to cover up the source of funds.The police conducted raids on multiple locations the day before yesterday, including two virtual currency investment companies, and arrested 5 men and 7 women. Eleven of them were suspected of conspiring to launder black money, and one person was suspected of obstructing the police's work. The ages of the suspects ranged from 20 to 45 years old, and they were suspected of laundering about HKD 30 million of black money through large cash withdrawals and virtual currency transactions. During the operation, about HKD 1.2 million in cash, more than 25 bank cards, multiple smartphones and computers were seized. The 12 suspects are currently being detained by the police, and the police do not rule out the possibility of more arrests.

On December 7th, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) official website updated information on virtual asset exchange license applications. It was shown that "Accumulus GBA Technology (Hongkong) Co., Limited", also known as "云账户大湾区科技(香港)有限公司", had officially submitted a virtual asset exchange license application to the SFC on December 6th. The name of their virtual asset trading platform is "Accumulus".<br>As of now, a total of nine companies have formally submitted virtual asset trading platform license applications to the SFC, while one application from "AMMBR (HK) LIMITED" has been withdrawn.