According to ME News, the "Crypto Finance Forum," jointly organized by WLFI, Bakkt, HKU School of Management and Economics Executive Education, and ME Group, was grandly launched on February 12, 2026, on Hong Kong Island on February 13 (UTC+8). At the forum, Professor Wang Yang, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, delivered a keynote speech on the prospects for Web3 development in Hong Kong, directly addressing deep-seated problems in the current institutional structure and offering systematic reflections on the transformation of the regulatory paradigm.
Professor Wang Yang pointed out that if Hong Kong is to truly build a global Web3 center, it must first have a clear and ambitious vision. He frankly stated that the current ecosystem can be summarized as "lacking in vision, small-scale operations, and over-regulation," and bluntly said that the current "regulatory sandbox" is more like a "glass box," emphasizing absolute safety ("fail-safe") while ignoring the space for innovation ("safe to fail"), causing projects to lose the flexibility for trial and error under high visibility and high constraints.
In his view, a true sandbox should have open boundaries and institutional flexibility, allowing for experimentation and failure within a controllable scope, rather than raising compliance thresholds to extremely high costs that stifle innovators. He pointed out that without substantial exemptions and institutional space, "trial and error" will become empty talk, potentially leading to resource misallocation and reverse selection.
Professor Wang Yang proposed that the concept of "Regulation as a Service" should be promoted, so that regulators can shift from approvers to service providers. Through the layered design of access lists, exemption lists and embargo lists, a more flexible institutional environment can be provided for innovation while adhering to the bottom line of anti-money laundering and asset security.
He further emphasized that Hong Kong itself is a "testing ground" at the national strategic level and should play a bridging role within the framework of national development, participating in global digital finance competition with a more open attitude, rather than relying solely on regulatory arbitrage. For Hong Kong to truly leap from a regional node to a global center, the key lies in being willing to tolerate failure, take risks, and build a technology-driven future.
Professor Wang Yang's speech injected a more strategic perspective into this forum and offered clear and straightforward institutional reflections on the development direction of Web3 in Hong Kong. (Source: ME)
