US-based Circle Internet Financial Ltd. is closely watching regulatory developments in Hong Kong after the territory’s new crypto rules went into effect, according to Jeremy Allaire, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

“Hong Kong clearly is looking to establish itself as a very significant center for digital assets markets and for stablecoins and we are paying very close attention to that,” Allaire said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China, on Tuesday.

As the issuer of USD Coin, the world’s second-largest stablecoin, Asia is “a huge area of …