Hong Kong’s authorities launched its second main coverage assertion on digital belongings, underlining its pledge to set the area up as a worldwide hub for the trade and saying it plans to determine a regulatory regime that places threat administration and investor safety heart stage.
The framework might be overseen by the Securities and Futures Fee and apply to custodians, digital asset service suppliers, exchanges and stablecoins, the federal government stated Thursday. Public consultations on the licensing regimes will begin shortly, it stated.
Hong Kong has been making strikes lately to strengthen its place within the trade, and the assertion builds on an earlier pronouncement from 2022, when it stated it was “prepared to have interaction” with members. In December, it granted licenses to 4 crypto exchanges, and final month handed a legislation permitting it to license stablecoin issuers from Aug. 1.
The Monetary Companies and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Hong Kong Financial Authority can even overview the authorized regime on the tokenization of real-world belongings (RWAs) and monetary devices, the federal government stated. The overview will take a look at tokenized bond issuances and transactions. The federal government is especially wanting on the sensible use of tokenization plus the way to diversify use circumstances, Monetary Secretary Paul Chan stated within the assertion.
Worldwide, RWA tokenization has grown by 380% in simply three years and reached $24 billion this month, in response to a first-half 2025 report from RedStone, Gauntlet and RWA.xyz.
“The Authorities will regularise the issuance of tokenised Authorities bonds and incentivise the tokenisation of RWAs to boost liquidity and accessibility via, amongst different initiatives, clarifying the stamp obligation therapy for tokenised trade traded funds (ETFs),” the federal government stated. It additionally welcomes secondary market buying and selling of those tokenized ETFs on licensed buying and selling platforms.
Nations throughout the globe just like the U.Okay., U.S., South Korea and Pakistan are establishing their regimes for crypto corporations as curiosity within the sector continues to develop. The European Union's guidelines for the trade, the Markets in Crypto Property (MiCA) laws, have been printed in 2023 and took impact final yr.
