Stablecoins, tokenized deposits and digital assets headline Hong Kong's regulatory framework

Hong Kong’s two main financial regulators have laid out plans to move core market functions on-chain and build new licensing rules for digital assets.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is upgrading its main settlement system to run on blockchain, all day, every day. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), on the other hand, is building new licensing rules for digital assets.

HKMA announces that its settlement system will go fully on-chain

Speaking at the Treasury Markets Summit, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Chief Executive Eddie Yue said the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU), the debt-securities settlement platform run by the monetary authority, will roll out new services by the end of this year. Those services are meant to provide round-the-clock, real-time settlement on-chain.

The upgraded platform is designed to handle a digital Hong Kong dollar and a central bank digital currency (CBDC), Yue said. He added that the HKMA will also study whether tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins can settle directly on the CMU.

Separately, the Securities and Futures Commission published its strategy for carrying out Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan and the Chief Executive’s 2026 Policy Address. The commission split its measures into a short-term batch and a medium-to-long-term batch, both batches with the stated aim of deepening the links between mainland China and global markets.

The SFC has also said it will introduce a new licensing regime and, over the longer term, draw up a regulatory framework for tokenized investment products that would cover tokenized gold and other real-world assets (RWAs).

The regulator shared that it will boost financial security by watching over how digital assets are held in custody and using a market-surveillance tool it calls CrypTech to catch suspicious market activity.

The regulator also plans to tighten its anti-money-laundering monitoring and intends to use artificial intelligence across its oversight systems over time.

How can stablecoins be used in Hong Kong?

Cryptopolitan reported that the HKMA just gave out its first two stablecoin issuer licenses in April 2026, to HSBC and to Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered with HKT and Animoca Brands.

Anchorpoint’s HKDAP, a token that redeems one-for-one for Hong Kong dollars, went live first. Standard Chartered became the first bank to distribute it and plans to use it for settling tokenized money market funds in the fourth quarter.

So far, circulation has remained small at 522,000 tokens as of August 19. HSBC has not yet issued its own Hong Kong dollar stablecoin but plans to during the second half of the year.

Notably, Gregory Yu, the exchange’s head of markets shared that Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX: 0388) plans to launch yuan-denominated gold futures priced in Chinese yuan instead of U.S. dollars early next year.

HKEX has already restarted a U.S.-dollar gold contract and wants to build more precious-metals and commodities products priced in offshore yuan. This ambition builds on a central clearing system for gold that a state-owned company, Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing Limited, began trial-running in July 2026.

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