What to know : Hong Kong officials used the opening day of Consensus Hong Kong to signal a push into digital assets, pledging stablecoin licenses as soon as next month and new rules for perpetual contracts. Speakers at the conference framed crypto as central to emerging trends such as an AI-driven “machine economy,” with Financial Secretary Paul Chan envisioning AI agents transacting onchain. Market voices including Anthony Scaramucci and Tom Lee urged investors to look past recent price declines, with Scaramucci reiterating a $150,000 bitcoin target tied to U.S. legislation and Lee calling current conditions a buying opportunity rather than a time to sell.
HONG KONG — Consensus Hong Kong's first day wrapped up with the promise of new financial products tied to crypto in the Special Administrative Region of China.
Hong Kong's chief executive and financial secretary and the CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission all laid out their priorities for regulation, saying Hong Kong would begin issuing stablecoin licenses next month, publish a framework for perpetual contracts and otherwise work to develop the local crypto economy.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan said he sees AI as one of a handful of trends maturing at this stage: "As AI agents become capable of making and executing decisions independent to it, we may begin to see the early forms of what some call the machine economy, where AI agents can hold and transfer digital assets, pay for services and transact with one another onchain."
Skybridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci said he would stick to a prediction that bitcoin would hit $150,000, pointing to legislation under negotiation in the U.S.
"I think once that legislation does pass, it's gonna open a floodgate of activity in the money center, banks in the United States," he said. "If we're just in the four-year cycle, then bitcoin is starting to reascend at the end of the year, starting in the fourth quarter."
Consensys' Joe Lubin said Ethereum is anti-fragile, which is important for a decentralized foundation that can support further decentralized finance (DeFi), which in turn would let developers "build, rearchitect the systems of the world essentially on sounder financial and trust foundations.
"DeFi is roughly as safe as traditional finance," he said.
Nigel Feetham, Gibraltar's minister for justice, trade and industry, said smaller jurisdictions regulating crypto are focused on ensuring market safety and integrity.
"We are jealous about guarding our reputation because all it takes is one market failure, if I can put it that way, and clearly everybody gets damaged by that. Once you are licensed in a jurisdiction, you become a stakeholder, and therefore we have an obligation to ensure that we look after all our stakeholders."
Recent market action also attracted speakers' attention.
Bitmine's Tom Lee, whose company is sitting on a nearly $8 billion unrealized loss through its ether holdings, said people "should be thinking about opportunities here instead of selling."
"Gold is a meme," said Selini's Jordi Alexander.
Consensus' final day will see panels focused on scaling the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana blockchains with a keynote by World Liberty Financial's Zak Folkman and a fireside conversation with the Chairman of Pakistan's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Bilal Bin Saqib.
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