Hong Kong updates digital asset policy, eyes global innovation hub status
Hong Kong's financial authorities updated lawmakers on the "LEAP" framework from the Digital Asset Policy Statement 2.0, covering legal reforms, tokenised products, applications and talent. New legislation to expand virtual-asset regulation will be tabled by year-end. The government confirmed stable
Hong Kong's government has provided a detailed update on its digital-asset policy, reiterating its goal to become a global innovation centre for the sector. In a legislative session on 4 November 2026, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, after consulting the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Cyberport, outlined progress under the "LEAP" framework introduced in the Hong Kong Digital Asset Policy Statement 2.0 in June 2025.
In legal and regulatory improvements, the government and the SFC will table a bill in the legislature by the end of 2026 to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615). The amendment would extend the existing licensing regime for virtual-asset trading platforms to cover virtual-asset dealing, advisory, management and custody services. Separately, the Treasury and the HKMA are reviewing laws to promote wider use of distributed ledger technology in fixed-income markets and digital assets.
On tokenised products, the government has made tokenised bond issuance a routine practice, issuing a fourth batch of digital green bonds in September 2026 worth about HK$20 billion. The issuance offered settlement options in tokenised central-bank money and tokenised deposits. As of end-September 2026, the SFC had authorised 17 tokenised retail investment products — including 13 tokenised money-market funds, one tokenised gold product, two gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with tokenised shares, and one covered-call-option ETF with tokenised shares — with combined assets under management of about HK$10.3 billion. Two authorised tokenised money-market funds began round-the-clock secondary-market trading on licensed virtual-asset trading platforms on 26 October 2026.
In application scenarios and cross-sector collaboration, the HKMA granted two stablecoin issuer licences in April 2026 under the Stablecoin Ordinance (Chapter 656), which took effect in August 2025. The government also backed Cyberport's "Blockchain and Digital Assets Pilot Grant Scheme", launched in June 2025, which funded nine pilot projects covering real-world asset tokenisation, payment and stablecoin infrastructure, security and risk management, and decentralised identity. As of June 2026, the scheme had facilitated HK$230 million in asset tokenisation, and six projects had entered commercial use. The government announced on 2 November 2026 that Cyberport would relaunch the scheme, with applications opening the same day.
In talent and partnership development, the government has allocated funding to Cyberport to build the Web 3.0 ecosystem through university partnerships, courses, boot camps, seed funds and internships, and through the "Web 3.0 Investor Network". By end-September 2026, these efforts had attracted over 320 enterprises and reached more than 7,000 participants in courses. Digital-asset and Web 3.0 professionals can also enter Hong Kong through various channels; the government's talent list, first published in 2018, already includes fintech professionals, offering streamlined entry for qualified overseas talent.
On attracting international virtual-asset trading platforms, the government and the SFC emphasised that any platform meeting statutory and SFC regulatory requirements may apply for a licence. The SFC and InvestHK have engaged with international platforms to explain Hong Kong's rules and market opportunities. The SFC has gradually broadened the products and services permitted on licensed platforms, facilitated access to global liquidity, and allowed more digital-asset and tokenised products under appropriate safeguards. The upcoming bill to expand the regulatory scope is expected to enable more diverse international service providers to operate in Hong Kong.