According to CoinDesk, the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association, an industry trade group, has proposed that the city's authorities consider creating an initial coin offering (ICO) portal. ICOs are a method of fundraising, similar to initial public offerings (IPOs), that gained popularity after the launch of Ethereum in 2015. Many of the most popular Web3 protocols began as ICOs, and despite an ICO bust during the 2017-2018 crypto winter, they proved to be a good investment for many long-term holders.
However, the issue with ICOs is that the majority, under current interpretations of the law, were blatant violations of securities rules. Hong Kong was a hub for ICO listings during their peak, but regulators pushed hard to have exchanges de-list many of the tokens. So-called 'legal' ICOs, known as security token offerings (STO), which started around 2019-2020, did not attract much interest from investors in Asia, as reported by CoinDesk at the time. Many STO portals had minimal trading volume. However, with a bull market on the horizon, it could be time to give legal ICOs another chance.
