Johnny Ng: Hong Kong’s Web3 Politician

Elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 2022, Johnny Ng left a career of founding tech companies — including one that made biometric facial recognition tech — to enter politics on a platform of providing more opportunities for young entrepreneurs and promoting the tech industry in the city.

As Hong Kong pivoted to embrace crypto and Web3, he’s also become a major advocate for the industry within government, inviting companies like Coinbase to apply for regulation (they turned him down) and calling for the launch of crypto ETFs in HK (they were approved in April).

He’s also had some zanier ideas. In November, he appealed to the Nobel Prize committee to make Satoshi Nakamoto a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize or the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. (No word back on that one yet.)

“The emergence of Bitcoin, based on blockchain technology, is addressing inflation issues in some countries and providing economic solutions for more impoverished regions,” he wrote on X. “It has also revolutionized global payment methods, reflecting the state of the global economy.”

Looking ahead, he is continuing to promote Web3 businesses not just in Hong Kong but across Asia. He also heads up the Subcommittee on Web3 and Virtual Asset Development, through which he’s seeking “to gather insights from the global Web3 industry, propose policy recommendations, and discuss the future direction of the industry in Hong Kong.”

This profile is part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year's nominees, click here.