HK Official Skips Crypto Event to Avoid Eric Trump, SCMP Says

Eric Trump at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas on May 28.

(Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong official and a lawmaker have withdrawn from a Bitcoin Asia conference in the city following advice not to engage with Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, the South China Morning Post reported.

Eric Yip, executive director at the Securities and Futures Commission, and lawmaker Johnny Ng were removed from the list of speakers for the Aug. 28-29 forum after receiving a request to skip the event featuring the American businessman, the paper reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The SCMP said it was unclear who made the request.

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An archived version of the event webpage on July 14 shows both officials as speakers. Their names are gone from the current list.

Yip was unable to attend the event because of a business trip, a spokesperson for the SFC said Thursday. The Hong Kong government and Ng didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The SCMP reported that Ng said he withdrew for family reasons.

The withdrawals come amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade, technology and other issues. The city is increasingly swept up in the crossfire of Trump’s trade war, facing tariffs this year that it was previously exempt from during Trump’s first term. The apparent avoidance underscores potential complications for the city’s push to become Asia’s crypto hub.

Clarence Shen, a manager of the SFC who helps make policy on fintech matters, is now listed as a speaker.

The conference features Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He leads some US cryptocurrency ventures and is described by the event organizer as “one of the most vocal advocates of his father and the Make America Great Again movement.”

(Updates with SFC comments and more details.)

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