Akina Ho has a spring in her step now that Hong Kong is officially back in business. After three very challenging years that saw the glittering island city become a shadow of its former self, Hong Kong has opened its borders again to the world. And with a brand new approach to crypto, it has founders and investors paying close attention. 

Ho has embraced the new openness and optimism with an energetic excitement that anyone who has met her feels immediately. A 20-year veteran of working with high-growth startups and advising on digital transformation, she has been much in demand as a speaker and panellist at the string of web3 events and festivals that have taken place in Hong Kong since the borders reopened in January.  

When I last connected with Ho earlier in the year, she had just submitted a nearly 100-page written response to the UK and Wales Law Commission on how to regulate decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). This exercise is part of a wider consultation and policy reform process by the UK for the “jurisdiction of England and Wales becoming a global hub for digital assets, and in particular, for crypto-tokens and crypto-token systems,” according to its website. 

Still, Hong Kong faces a tough environment to lure crypto startups. Even as it makes its regulations industry friendly, companies are not exactly rushing into Hong Kong to set up shop, despite pressure from U.S. regulators that might be expected to move activity outside the country. Exchanges such as KuCoin and OKX, both based in the Seychelles, are reportedly working on acquiring licenses to operate in Hong Kong. At least one hedge fund, VDX, co-founded by a former Hong Kong securities regulator, is focused on virtual assets and is close to becoming operational.

Ho is a co-founder of AllStarsWomen DAO, which was created in 2022 to “close the gender gap in the tech space and build an inclusive web3,” its manifesto reads. In the year since its founding, ASW DAO has attracted a cohort of influential people from the web3 ecosystem who act as Ambassadors and has activated chapters in several jurisdictions, the most recent being Taiwan.

Read more: Hong Kong Regulators to Test Crypto Traders and Require Their Holdings to be Disclosed, New Paper Proposes

“I was very happy to participate in the Law of England and Wales Call for Evidence for DAOs regulations,” she said to me recently. “This starts with what a DAO is and how DAOs are regulated in terms of regulations, taxations, monitoring, reporting, compliance, etc. The submission detailed four recommendations to help drive the law for England and Wales on this.”

Next, the Law Commission will use the views it received to construct a scoping study to identify areas that need further review and potential reform, she said. 

In early June, Hong Kong’s regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, sent a strong message to the Asian region that it is positioning itself as a serious crypto hub. After several months of industry-wide consultations, it released VASP, its new licensing regime, outlining the rules by which virtual asset service providers can form and operate within Hong Kong.

Ho believes that it’s just a matter of time before regulation within Asia will be more conducive to the creation of DAOs. Furthermore, she feels confident that the lessons already learned from one year of operating ASW DAO places the organization in a good position to be a role model and support future DAOs in the region. Ho is now looking to expand the footprint of ASW DAO into more cities within Asia and is keenly exploring Singapore as its next chapter. 

“Web3 is this new era of technology and evolution of the Internet,” Ho said. “It challenges everything. Digital currencies challenge the belief that only governments can make currency and build economies. The metaverse challenges how we live in the real world and how we represent ourselves in an alternative digital world. Blockchain challenges the way we build businesses and take ownership of information.”

Meanwhile, she is in high demand as a leading digital transformation specialist. Ho acknowledges that media reports around new generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made employers pay attention to digital transformation. 

“With the current pressures of high inflation, lack of talent, high turnover and younger generations not applying for menial jobs, employers are now starting to understand the true potential of technology to automate certain roles, reduce inefficiencies, improve customer service, automate communication, and provide smart training,” she said. “AI will fundamentally change the way we operate as we are relieved of mundane and basic stuff, and forces us to leverage what we have as humans to do things that AI cannot ‘yet’ do. All these technologies are converging and are part of the web3 conversation.”