Author: OSL
On February 17, the Web3 Connect: An Institutional-Focused Forum event co-hosted by OSL, Blockdaemon, and Solomon in Hong Kong was successfully concluded. The summit brought together global regulatory experts, representatives of financial institutions, and technology pioneers to engage in in-depth discussions on topics such as digital asset custody, institutional blockchain applications, and compliance trends.
In the first panel discussion, OSL's Chief Institutional Business Officer (CIBO), Zhang Yinghua, shared the latest updates on Hong Kong's digital asset regulatory framework and analyzed the new challenges and opportunities that this change brings to institutional investors.
Blockchain "Penetrates" the Traditional Trade System: Stablecoins Drive the Efficiency Revolution
First, OSL's Chief Institutional Business Officer (CIBO), Zhang Yinghua, pointed out that with the widespread adoption of stablecoins, more and more international trade companies are choosing to use them as a cross-border payment tool to reduce exchange rate fluctuation risks and settlement costs and time.
For enterprises, in scenarios with high payment frequency but relatively low single transaction amounts (such as retail payments or payroll settlements), they often hope that the payment system can provide efficient fund flow while also considering low costs. However, the current blockchain technology architecture usually requires customized development to adapt to different business processes and traditional system interfaces.
In terms of practical use, stablecoins such as USDT have already gone beyond just serving cryptocurrency users and trading scenarios, deeply penetrating a wider range of financial scenarios such as currency exchange, commodity payment, remittance, and payroll payment. In this context, the market urgently needs a universal and cost-effective integrated development solution to reduce technical complexity and implementation costs, helping enterprises, especially small and medium-sized participants, to more easily access the blockchain payment network and obtain Web3 payment service support.
From this perspective, market participants like OSL, who have compliant, secure, efficient, and diversified service capabilities - whether it is for enterprises to integrate Web3 payments into their platform payment options, or for the custody, trading, and clearing of stablecoins, Bitcoin, and other digital assets, OSL and other compliant digital asset platforms can provide low-cost, secure, and convenient support.
In addition, the implementation of PayFi requires not only technical and compliance support, but also collaborative innovation with multi-industry partners. Therefore, OSL announced in December last year that it will invest up to $30 million to accelerate the development of the PayFi ecosystem, through close collaboration with credit card issuers, payment service providers, cross-border e-commerce, and logistics companies, to comprehensively improve the PayFi ecosystem.
From "Whether" to "How": A New Paradigm for Institutional Participation
At the same time, Zhang Yinghua pointed out that the focus of institutional investors has shifted from "whether to enter the crypto field" to "how to efficiently deploy", and more and more investors, financial institutions, listed companies, and family offices are actively considering allocating virtual assets through compliant channels in Hong Kong.
This transformation marks the transition of crypto assets from "peripheral experiments" to "mainstream allocation", and the improvement of the compliance infrastructure has become a key support.
As the first licensed exchange in Hong Kong, OSL has always strictly complied with the regulatory requirements of Hong Kong and other parts of the world, continuously improving its internal compliance system to ensure the legality, transparency, and standardization of its business operations. Especially with its full-license compliance advantages and institutional-level service capabilities, OSL is becoming the preferred partner for institutional participation:
By providing custody services that meet the highest standards of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), from KYC/AML compliance review to asset allocation strategy design, from exchange trading to OTC trading, from digital asset custody to customized institutional trading, from crypto ETFs to RWA exploration, OSL provides reliable digital asset services for users.
Zhang Yinghua emphasized that the demand of institutional investors has shifted from "trial" to "in-depth cultivation", and they need not only technical tools, but also compliant solutions that can seamlessly integrate with their existing risk control systems. OSL's mission is to lower the threshold for institutional participation through infrastructure innovation, driving crypto assets from "optional" to "necessary".
Summary
Overall, this summit event sends a clear signal - Hong Kong is incorporating virtual assets into the mainstream financial system through a "strong regulation + gradual innovation" strategy, and breakthroughs in institutional-level custody solutions, cross-chain interoperability technologies, and compliant derivative products may become the key engines for the next stage of market growth.
Zhang Yinghua concluded, "OSL is not only a service provider, but also a co-builder of the industry ecosystem. We believe that only through continuous innovation and compliance practices can we truly integrate crypto assets into the mainstream financial system."
