Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency Disputes: Hong Kong’s Legal Framework
As cryptocurrency, NFTs, and tokenized assets increasingly reshape the global financial landscape, the legal frameworks governing them are being forced to rapidly evolve. In this insightful analysis, John Lee, a lawyer with the prominent Hong Kong law firm Angela Wang & Co., expertly deconstructs the complex intersection of digital assets and the law. By carefully unpacking five distinct categories of digital assets, Lee illuminates why decentralized giants like Bitcoin and Ethereum operate under fundamentally different paradigms than stablecoins pegged to traditional reserve assets. He provides a masterclass on Hong Kong’s proactive regulatory transformation, guiding readers through the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) pivotal 2023 licensing system and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) landmark 2025 stablecoin regime. Crucially, Lee highlights the watershed 2023 Re Gatecoin (Bitcoin) case—the historic ruling that officially recognized digital assets as a valid “third category” of property under common law. Because these novel assets defy traditional legal classifications, modern disputes surrounding ownership, corporate insolvency, and cross-border jurisdiction are growing exponentially complex. Ultimately, Lee makes a compelling case for international arbitration as the definitive resolution path forward, offering the precise confidentiality, flexibility, and specialized blockchain expertise that traditional litigation often lacks.
Our Guest
John Y.C. Lee
John is a solicitor admitted in Hong Kong and England & Wales, independent arbitrator and accredited mediator. He is a graduate of London University and has about 25 years of legal practice experience including as past partner and head of dispute resolution group of a major law firm. His main areas of practice are commercial arbitration, litigation, risk management, advisory and related areas. He has handled commercial and civil cases including investment claims, company / shareholder disputes, construction claims, insolvency cases, competition law matters, intellectual property claims, land related disputes etc.
He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators. He serves as a risk management education tutor (part-time appointment of the Law Society of Hong Kong), Editorial Board member of the Solicitors’ Guide to Professional Conduct, a member of the Law Society Arbitration Committee and the Arbitration Panel, and a member of the Law Society Risk Management Education Accreditation Sub-Committee. He was appointed on the DOJ Working Group on ORFSA Checklists.
Our Host
Ajay Shamdasani
Ajay Shamdasani is a veteran writer, editor and researcher based in Hong Kong. He holds an AB in history and government from Ripon College, JD and MIPCT degrees from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce Law School, and an LLM in financial regulation from the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.
His 15-year long career as a financial and legal journalist began as deputy editor of A Plus magazine – the journal of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. From there, he assumed the helm of Macau Business magazine as its editor-in-chief, and later, joined Asialaw magazine as its deputy editor.
More recently, he spent close to seven years as a senior correspondent with Thomson Reuters’ subscription-based trade-wire service Regulatory Intelligence/Compliance Complete (previously called Complinet) in Hong Kong. While there, he covered regulatory developments in that city, as well as Singapore, India and South Korea.
