The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Thursday said the SAR has a key role to play in contributing to global regulations on cryptocurrency, as industry players called for further expansion of the industry ecosystem.

The remarks were made as cryptocurrency-focused conference Bitcoin Asia 2025 got underway at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

It comes after the city's new regime governing stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to fiat money, took effect earlier this month, marking another milestone in the city's push to develop its digital asset sector.

At a morning panel at the event, Clarence Shen, an SFC manager responsible for fintech policy formulation, said Hong Kong's cryptocurrency industry has seen "incremental" progress in recent years, adding that the SAR can contribute to global governance of the blockchain-based virtual asset.

"What we've been seeing in SFC is there has been a convergence globally in terms of regulations, [and] we see many major jurisdictions moving from a more light-touched regime to a more investor protection-oriented and centric regime. And Hong Kong, in particular, is playing a key role in this change as well," he said.

"We've been actively participating in many different multilateral organisations and bilateral communications with different regulators. What Hong Kong and SFC are trying to do is that we are not just a participant in the global regulations, but we are also an active player and writer of the global rule book."

Echoing Shen, Marco Lim, independent non-executive director at Boyaa Interactive, one of the SAR-listed firms with the largest bitcoin holdings, said he expects more institutions will utilise their "tokens", or the digital assets that are built on blockchains, to further enhance the industry's eco-system.

"Right now, we are seeing [the emergence] of so many digital asset treasury companies, and I think that's only the beginning of traditional financial capital markets [investing] into crypto. This year, we've really seen it," he told participants.

"But I think what we will be seeing next year is these digital treasury companies with their huge treasuries, they're going to do more with it, to use those tokens to incubate the ecosystem, so the ecosystem grows bigger."

Separately, Lim said the SAR should ramp up education on virtual assets to better protect investors.

He said although Hong Kong has rolled out measures to regulate virtual asset trading platform operators (VATPs) and has launched a number of exchange traded funds (ETFs) investing in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether, the city is still lagging behind regional peers when it comes to crypto education.

"I think Hong Kong is still a market that is slightly undeveloped, because out of all the seven million population, only two to three percent right now own cryptocurrencies," he said.

"Even though we already have relevant ETFs and VATPs, we have all these tools now for them to invest, I think we need to do much more on education, investor education, on 'why do they want to invest in this asset class'?

"That is the most important thing that we should do more about going forward," he said.

During the event, other key topics include stablecoins' role in shaping Asia's financial future, bitcoin's impact on youth, bitcoin ETFs, and bitcoin treasury innovation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Key speakers include Eric Trump, son of US President Donald Trump, who will attend two sessions on Friday afternoon.

The event is the regional edition of the Bitcoin Conference, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency events.