Hong Kong, 26 March — HashKey Capital’s Deng Chao (DC) was invited to speak at a panel discussion hosted by the Milken Institute on Tuesday, 26 March. The discussion, which focused on the future of digital assets, also included Takashi Hayashida, Managing Partner of Taisu Ventures, and Bojan Obradović, Chief Digital Officer of HSBC Hong Kong. The event was moderated by Ernest Ho, Head of Digital Finance at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

DC underscored the importance of clear regulations in fostering a healthy digital asset ecosystem. Without clear regulations, bad actors can act with impunity, compliant entities may struggle to demonstrate their strengths, resulting in diminished user confidence and market participation.

Opportunities also emerge for bad actors to take advantage of the lack of clarity from authorities. DC emphasized the need for collaboration between regulators and industry participants to establish clear boundaries and guidelines, paving the way for legitimate businesses to operate while mitigating the risks associated with non-compliant activities.

The recent crypto winter, and lessons gained from it, were a major topic of discussion. DC emphasized the bear market’s utility as a time to invest in undervalued startups. The market downturn presented an entry point for Hashkey to acquire stakes in promising companies at an early stage of their development. DC also noted a positive trend of crypto startups migrating their operations to Asia, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore, in many cases due to a more stable regulatory outlook.

Taisu Ventures’ Hayashida offered his insights on the future of digital assets, sharing his experience entering the digital asset space in 2017 and highlighting the challenges faced by the industry due to the lack of clear regulations.

HSBC’s Obradović discussed digital assets from the perspective of a traditional financial institution. He acknowledged the immense potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT) to revolutionize financial services, emphasizing that HSBC is actively investing in DLT research and exploring various use cases for digital assets.

These use cases include tokenized securities, digital money, and real-world asset tokenization. Obradović also highlighted Hong Kong’s potential to become a global leader in digital assets due to the government’s proactive approach in establishing a clear regulatory framework.

The panelists each brought different perspectives to the conversation, highlighting their own experiences and philosophies. DC drew on HashKey’s status as a global, crypto-native institutional investor to highlight some of the major challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

One point of agreement across the discussion was the importance of clear, consistent regulations to govern the development and adoption of digital assets and foster an environment in which the sector can grow to achieve its potential. Coming out of the recent “crypto winter,” DC and the other panelists agreed on one thing: digital assets are poised to continue to grow, evolve, and mature.

About HashKey Capital

Global in influence and crypto-native, HashKey Capital is a digital asset and blockchain leader helping institutions, founders and talents advance the blockchain industries.

As one of the largest crypto funds and the earliest institutional investor in Ethereum, HashKey Capital has managed over US$1 billion in client assets since its inception, with over 500 investments in infrastructure, tools, and applications.

With our deep knowledge across the blockchain ecosystem, HashKey Capital has built a robust network connecting founders, investors, developers, and regulators.