While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launches a volley of lawsuits against some of the largest exchanges in the cryptocurrency industry, Hong Kong regulators have been eager to show the world that the city state is the gateway to the lucrative Chinese and Southeast Asia market.

The first to market, however, have so far been a state-sponsored bank and a startup, suggesting that Hong Kong has more to do to play catch up with local rivals like Singapore.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission launched new regulations in early June that give existing exchanges one year to comply to operate in the city. The new rules also offer new startups or financial institutions room to grow a crypto practice that offers “virtual assets” to the retail public. Among the rules they must follow: having a board of directors that approves of both stablecoin reserves and token listings and creates proof of financial education for new retail traders.

Several companies have launched initiatives packaging traditional assets into tokenized formats. Some 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. So far, though, 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.

Read more: Hong Kong Regulators Release Stablecoin Rules

One company, Finblox, that was said to be launching virtual assets in Hong Kong, is actually based and licensed in Europe. It launched a U.S. Treasury bill product that integrates with OpenEden’s vault to provide on-chain proof that Finblox’s TBILL tokens are backed one-to-one by U.S. Treasury securities, USDC, and U.S. dollars.

Co-founder Peter Hoang said that the company is taking a wait and see approach to ensure that the regulatory regime “takes off” before it goes further.

“We are still exploring the possible license acquisitions in Hong Kong within the new framework, but we first need to see how that regime takes off,” Hoang told Decential in an email. “If there will be any benefit for our retail users that we would be able to offer with a Hong Kong license, that is a possible development.”

By being a registered entity in the European Union, Hoang said his company falls into compliance with the Hong Kong Virtual Asset Service Provider regulations. “This has enabled us to roll out the TBILL Yield Token, currently more as a beta product, available only for a limited number of Finblox users,” he said.

Hong Kong regulators are giving Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VASP) that operate in or have obtained a business license in Hong Kong but aren’t based in the city up to one year to come into compliance if they started their operations before June 1, 2023. Current VASP regulations in the new regime put scrutiny on whether the company operates in the city and hires Hong Kong employees.

Other companies are using credentialed relationships with EU banks or basing their products on the U.S. dollar to roll out virtual asset products in Hong Kong from afar. For example, the Bank of China International, Bank of China’s foreign investment arm, on Tuesday launched $28 million in securitized tokens for bonds denominated in Chinese yuan by working with Switzerland-based UBS to package the deal on the blockchain.

According to UBS, “The product was originated by UBS and placed to its clients in Asia Pacific, marking a long-term collaboration between BOCI and UBS in the space of digital structured notes.”

Another Hong Kong company, First Digital Labs, is offering a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar on the Binance blockchain.

Hong Kong leaders are making the pitch to global crypto firms after the rule change. “I hereby offer an invitation to welcome all global virtual asset trading operators including @coinbase to come to HK for application of official trading platforms and further development plans,” legislator Johnny Ng wrote on Twitter on June 10.

So far, incremental changes to the way Hong Kong positions itself as crypto-ready have focused on Asia entities. For example, the HKMA, Hong Kong’s central banking authority, recently said the government will create a digital token for the Hong Kong dollar. The HKMA is working with the Bank of Thailand on a cross-border payments trial, putting itself in the arena against Singapore, which has been trialing blockchain systems for cross-border banking and clearance partnerships since 2021.