Hong Kong’s authorities launched its second main coverage assertion on digital property, underlining its pledge to set the area up as a worldwide hub for the business and saying it plans to ascertain a regulatory regime that places threat administration and investor safety heart stage.
The framework will likely be overseen by the Securities and Futures Fee and apply to custodians, digital asset service suppliers, exchanges and stablecoins, the federal government mentioned Thursday. Public consultations on the licensing regimes will begin shortly, it mentioned.
Hong Kong has been making strikes in recent times to strengthen its place within the business, and the assertion builds on an earlier pronouncement from 2022, when it mentioned it was “prepared to interact” with contributors. 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 Providers and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Hong Kong Financial Authority can even assessment the authorized regime on the tokenization of real-world property (RWAs) and monetary devices, the federal government mentioned. The assessment will take a look at tokenized bond issuances and transactions. The federal government is especially wanting on the sensible use of tokenization plus the right way to diversify use circumstances, Monetary Secretary Paul Chan mentioned within the assertion.
Worldwide, RWA tokenization has grown by 380% in simply three years and reached $24 billion this month, in line with 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 by means of, amongst different initiatives, clarifying the stamp obligation therapy for tokenised alternate traded funds (ETFs),” the federal government mentioned. 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.Ok., 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 business, the Markets in Crypto Belongings (MiCA) laws, had been printed in 2023 and took impact final 12 months.
