Heng Zhou

Background

Came into crypto from cross-border payments. Spent six years on the edge where retail banks meet OTC stablecoin settlement — first inside a payment-services firm operating between Hong Kong and Singapore, then independently. The work made the practical edges of stablecoin regulation a daily problem rather than a theoretical one: which exchanges accept which sources of funds, what triggers a bank account closure, how a frozen address behaves across chains, how the same transaction is treated by three different jurisdictions' tax authorities.

Compliance frameworks worked through in practice

• US IRS Form 8949 reporting. Two filing seasons of assistance to clients with US tax exposure, including the wash-sale boundary, the treatment of stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps as taxable dispositions, and the documentation standards that survive an IRS notice.
• UK HMRC Cryptoassets Manual. Capital gains treatment for individual holders, the section 104 pool mechanics that catch out new arrivals, and the practical record-keeping that holds up in correspondence with HMRC.
• Hong Kong SFC VATP licensing. The virtual asset trading platform regime, the customer due-diligence requirements, and the practical handover points between licensed venues and OTC desks.
• Hong Kong stablecoin ordinance (2025). The licensing window for fiat-referenced stablecoins, the practical implications for retail holders and for businesses accepting stablecoin payment.
• Singapore MAS Payment Services Act. The digital payment token licence categories and the practical questions around card programmes and corporate accounts.
• EU MiCA implementation. The e-money token and asset-referenced token categories, the transition window mechanics, and the practical exchange-by-exchange picture as USDT was phased out of EU-licensed venues.

Editorial role

Every number, fee figure, attestation date, regulator citation and chain hash on the StableDesk site goes through a second read by Heng. The discipline is simple: each numerical claim has to be traceable to a primary source in fewer than two clicks, and each operational claim has to map to an editor-tested transaction. When a draft fails the second read, it goes back to Wen Lu with notes; the published version is the one that passed.

When a piece requires a fresh test transaction or a new disclosure pull, Heng writes the methodology: which wallet, which chain, which amount, what to record, where the error bars sit. This separation — the lead writer is also the trader; the fact-checker designs the test — is what keeps the writing honest.

Coverage areas

• Stablecoin tax treatment across the US, UK, EU, Hong Kong and Singapore.
• Banking-rail behaviour around stablecoin on-ramps and off-ramps, including the recurring questions around personal bank account closures.
• OTC USDT settlement practice in Asia, including the operational realities that the published regulatory documents glide over.
• The corrections log: every entry on the corrections page is logged by Heng.

Selected pieces

• Twenty questions a new holder actually asks — the tax and ramp sections in particular reflect Heng's working notes.
• Editorial policy — the fact-check workflow described there is Heng's standard.
• Corrections log — maintained week by week.

The Chinese-edition portfolio is wider; the bilingual byline appears on tax and cross-border pieces under the name 周衡.

Conflicts of interest

Heng holds working stablecoin balances for personal use and for editorial testing. No commercial relationships with any issuer, exchange, custody provider or law firm. The Binance Affiliate relationship at StableDesk applies to the site as a whole and is disclosed on the disclaimer page.

Contact

Email [email protected]. For corrections, source pointers, or tax and compliance enquiries (general information only; not tax advice).