Howard Chung’s work spans licensing, financing and global risk controls for a next-generation trading platform. He led and managed internal stakeholders and external counsel to prepare and obtain a Bermuda Digital Asset Business Act M licence in December 2024 —positioning GRVT as the world’s first licensed DEX before its mainnet launch. Most recently, he negotiated and completed a US$19 million Series A financing in GRVT with ZKSync Foundation and Further Ventures as the lead investors, and this is the forth fundraising he has completed in two and a half years with GRVT. In parallel, he advised on global regulatory risk-mitigation and control focused on U.S. securities law, EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulations and Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act and Payment Services Act.

Howard's quantifiable contributions include the fundraising and licensing milestone noted above and guided the integration, rules setting and testing, and full implementation of semi-automated processes for initial know-your-client, and procedures for wallet screening, transaction monitoring and trade-surveillance from a legal and compliance perspective in alignment with global industry standards. Howard also responsible for establishing and implementing process and procedures in scaling up legal and compliance function of GRVT, overseeing GRVT’s growth from 10 staff when he joined two and a half years ago to more than 70 staff globally today. Prior to GRVT, Howard has worked for multi-national financial institutions, technology companies and law firms throughout his career including OKX, Algorand Foundation, Credit Suisse, Neuberger Berman and Baker McKenzie.

Howard’s growth narrative centres on becoming a regional thought leader in fintech—blockchain, crypto, real-world-asset tokenisation and stablecoins—and using accumulated legal, regulatory and operational experience to help technology entrepreneurs take products to market responsibly. He also mentors the next generation: over the past decade, outside work, he has mentored more than twenty young lawyers and law students through programmes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship. His stated aim is to pair rigorous legal, risk management and control with innovation so new technologies can be adopted with high legal and operational standards, winning over the trust from regulators, customers and peers.

In 2025, Howard was recognized by Asia Legal Business, ALB Hong Kong Law Awards 2025, as ALB Asia Rising Stars Hong Kong 2025 https://www.legalbusinessonline.com/sites/default/files/e-magazines/ALB-ASIA-SEPTEMBER-2025/34/, Fintech Lawyer of the Year (In-House) Finalist and Young Lawyer of the Year Finalist https://www.legalbusinessonline.com/law-awards/alb-hong-kong-law-awards-2025#edit-group-finalists.