Hong Kong helped build Asia's crypto industry. Then exchanges, companies and talent moved on. Has the city won back its crown?
Bitcoin.com’s David Sencil explores Hong Kong’s crypto scene and speaks with founders, investors and industry leaders about why companies left and what could draw businesses to the city. They discuss Singapore, mainland China and the role Hong Kong’s capital markets could play in crypto’s future. They also remember a few wild parties, including one with actual parachutes.
Featuring Haseeb Qureshi, Johnny Ng, Gary Liu, Michael Lau and Allen Ng, with an opening contrib...
What Haseeb Qureshi said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of Dragonfly Capital, said he would not start a crypto business in Hong Kong today, unlike in 2014. He recalled that almost all major exchanges, including OKX, Huobi, Bybit, and Binance, once had a presence in Hong Kong, but most left. Ranking Asian hubs, he said Hong Kong was number one in 2019, with mainland China second, and Singapore became the clear number one after 2020 for capital formation and founders. He attributed Hong Kong's decline to China's 2021 crypto ban, which Hong Kong largely followed, and COVID-zero policies that drove firms to Singapore, which recruited loudly. He noted Singapore's government has since become cautious about retail crypto after Three Arrows and FTX. He argued the convergence of traditional finance and crypto makes Hong Kong significant, but winning companies back is hard. He praised Hong Kong's 'adventure spirit' and said it is making the right initial moves.
Key takeaways
Qureshi would not start a crypto business in Hong Kong today, unlike in 2014.
Singapore became the number one Asian crypto hub after 2020 for capital formation and founders.
Hong Kong's decline was driven by China's 2021 crypto ban and COVID-zero policies.
Singapore's government changed its mind about retail crypto after Three Arrows and FTX.
Hong Kong is making the right initial moves but it is not easy to win companies back.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
2014
Year when Hong Kong was a good place to start a crypto business
I'm here in Hong Kong, and while I'm here, I want to find out if Hong Kong has lost the crown as crypto hub of Asia. And what's its future? Will it be Hong Kong? Will it be Singapore? Korea? Japan? Let's find out.
Almost all of the big exchanges at one point or another were based in Hong Kong, and eventually everybody moved out, you know, but if you remember the early days of OKX, Huobi, Bybit, Binance, almost all of them had a presence in Hong Kong.
So many of the early crypto exchanges were actually either founded here or domiciled here. So many of them. I think the number is six of the top 10 crypto exchanges at some point called Hong Kong the actual domicile home.
And I went went into this event and there's like the guy just like went on the stage and everyone was excited and he just like grabbed the mic. He's like oh, this token, I like it. I think it's good. And then he just mic dropped.
And then you see everyone downstairs like going crazy. And then they pull out their phone and then everyone start clicking on their phone and look at the chart. The token literally went up 60%.
I remember attending street parties where people would be, you know, talking about the latest thing related to this project or that project. I remember there's this one street party I went to where they took like some souvenir or some swag and they threw it off the top of a building with little parachutes and they called it air drop. So, I remember things like that happening back in the day.
Thank you, sir, for doing this. I really appreciate it. I want you to give me a ranking of the crypto hubs in Asia and I want two comparisons like maybe 2017 2018 and 2026. And I'm thinking about Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Japan. I don't know if there's another one, but maybe those four. How would you rank them? 1 2 3 4.
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Qureshi, H. (2026, October 31). Did Hong Kong Lose Its Crypto Crown to Singapore? [Interview transcript]. Bitcoincom News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3170228/
MLA
Haseeb Qureshi. "Did Hong Kong Lose Its Crypto Crown to Singapore?." Bitcoincom News, 31 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3170228/.
BibTeX
@misc{qureshi2026_3170228,
author = {Haseeb Qureshi},
title = {Did Hong Kong Lose Its Crypto Crown to Singapore?},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bitcoincom News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3170228/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
