Hong Kong plans wider licensing for virtual-asset services
A government reply says a bill planned by year-end would extend oversight beyond trading platforms to dealing, advice, management and custody.
In brief
- The planned bill would cover virtual-asset dealing, advisory, management and custody services.
- The government reported HK$10.3 billion in tokenised retail-product assets at the end of September.
- The statement describes intended legislation and reported market figures, not a law already in force.
A broader perimeter is planned
Hong Kong's government said on 4 November that it and the Securities and Futures Commission plan to introduce a bill by the end of 2026 that would expand the existing virtual-asset trading-platform regime. The proposed perimeter would also cover virtual-asset dealing, advisory, management and custody services. The reply, delivered in the Legislative Council by Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Joseph Chan, did not present enacted text or an implementation date. It also said the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and Hong Kong Monetary Authority are reviewing legislation to support wider use of distributed-ledger technology in fixed income and digital assets.
Tokenised products provide the market context
The same reply supplied a snapshot of Hong Kong's tokenised retail market. It said the SFC had authorised 13 tokenised money-market funds, one tokenised gold product, two gold exchange-traded funds with tokenised classes and one covered-call ETF with a tokenised class by the end of September. The government put assets in those tokenised classes at about HK$10.3 billion. It also said two authorised tokenised money-market funds began round-the-clock secondary trading on licensed virtual-asset platforms on 26 October. These are government-reported figures and should not be read as independent measures of investor demand or liquidity.
Licensing remains the entry point
International platforms may apply for an SFC licence if they meet Hong Kong's statutory and regulatory requirements, the reply said. Officials described engagement by the SFC and Invest Hong Kong with international platforms, but did not announce a new approval. The government also pointed to two stablecoin-issuer licences granted by the HKMA in April and to a renewed Cyberport blockchain and digital-asset pilot subsidy scheme that opened on 2 November. Together, the details show policy moving on several tracks, while the planned service-provider bill still has to enter and pass the legislative process.
Sources and verification
Based on an official announcement
Official-answer brief based on the Hong Kong government transcript dated 4 November 2026. Planned legislation, regulator activity and market figures are attributed to the government; no bill passage, platform approval or independent adoption measure is implied.
- LCQ1: Policy on the development of digital assets Hong Kong Government · Primary document · 4 Nov 2026
Prepared with AI assistance from the linked sources. This is not a claim of independent field reporting or human review. How we publish · Report a correction
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