Today, June 1, is an important day for crypto and Hong Kong. The city just lifted its crypto ban and is once again allowing retail trading.
Now, there's a lot of speculation about what this will ultimately mean for the city and for Asia, given that Beijing is a crypto hater (all crypto transactions have been banned in China since 2021).
Some think that this could be a leading indicator for a softening Chinese position on crypto; while the cynics think that this reinstatement could be short lived given that Beijing remains a hater.
Whatever the outcome, I think it is noteworthy that Hong Kong is trying to reestablish itself as a global hub for digital assets and that it believes crypto is here to stay.
It is also a good reminder that, even though the herd has moved onto AI, there's still important work happening beneath many of the mainstream headlines.
My own conviction and activities around crypto haven't changed over the last year, and so I'm happy to see cities like Hong Kong working to reassert themselves in this space.
Brian Potter, of Construction Physics, recently tried to determine which cities build skyscrapers the fastest.
Here's how he went about that:
He started by looking up the 50 largest cities in the world on Wikipedia
He then pulled data from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat to get a list of every skyscraper completed between 2000-2020 that was over 100 meters, had a start and completion date, and had a gross floor area
The result was a list of 986 skyscrapers completed in 39 cities, most of which (~740) were completed in the US, China, Japan, and Canada
Finally, he calculated completed square feet per year and made some charts
Here are the results:
