Hong Kong High Court hears world’s first DAO lawsuit

Recently, the Hong Kong High Court heard the world's first lawsuit involving a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The court ruled that six defendants must disclose detailed financial statements and supporting documents of blockchain and real-world asset tokenization (RWA) projects in response to allegations of asset misappropriation, with a claim amount of up to HK$6 billion. This case not only marks the legal community's first understanding of DAO, but also reiterates the important principle that Web3 business activities must respect the rule of law. The court emphasized that DAO controllers must be responsible to token holders to ensure transparency and accountability of project funds. Today, Councillor Wu Jiezhuang and Ms. Huang Mengying, a lawyer at the case law firm MUNG, held a press conference to explain the situation and opinions of the outside world. Legislative Councillor Wu Jiezhuang said that Hong Kong currently has enough soft infrastructure and legal professionals to develop DAO, and suggested that the authorities take this opportunity to seriously study and improve the relevant laws, dispel investors' doubts, clarify responsibilities and rights, and attract global compliant, healthy, and economically developed DAO companies to settle in Hong Kong. At present, Web3 policies are being implemented step by step. Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs have landed in Hong Kong, and we look forward to the first reading of the stablecoin and over-the-counter trading legislation in the Legislative Council as soon as possible to regulate stablecoins and allow stablecoins to be "launched". In addition, Councillor Wu Jiezhuang said that the SAR government should be encouraged to promote Hong Kong's soft infrastructure and the characteristics of "one country, two systems". Under the advantages of common law, it is believed that the development of Web3 in Hong Kong can achieve immediate results. Finally, Councillor Wu Jiezhuang proposed to enhance Hong Kong's Web3 influence and improve the ecosystem, improve DAO legal norms, and attract a large number of overseas talents and funds to Hong Kong, so that Hong Kong can become a DAO center; become a Web3 world center.