Taking a significant step toward its ambition of becoming a crypto center, Hong Kong intends to encourage ordinary investors to trade in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This will be in contrast to the United States, which is cracking down on cryptocurrency activity.

Individual investors may have the opportunity to trade larger coins on exchanges that are within the purview of the Securities and Futures Commission’s license. Hong Kong continues to pursue its goal of becoming a crypto center for corporates despite the failure of many cryptocurrency exchanges, which provides a clue at the FTX catastrophe.

The government did not specify which large-capitalization coins would be available to common investors when they made their announcement. Instead, it demanded that the coins be included in at least two trustworthy and investable indexes derived from different sources, at least one of which had to have prior experience working in the conventional financial industry.

The comment session will expire on March 31, and the goal is to enable retail trading under the new licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges, which is slated to go into effect on June 1.

A representative for the SFC said that it is anticipated that platforms in Hong Kong would offer Bitcoin and Ether, which are the two digital currencies with the highest market value.