Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee delivered the city's 2026 Policy Address on September 16, embedding digital assets into a broader five-year economic plan for 2026-2030. The policy document commits the government to six concrete actions in the next 15 months: permitting regulated stablecoins ...
"We will expedite the development of new growth areas, building a premier international gold trading market, driving the development of fintech, as well as promoting green and sustainable finance." — John Lee, Chief Executive, Hong Kong SAR
Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee delivered the city's 2026 Policy Address on September 16, embedding digital assets into a broader five-year economic plan for 2026-2030. The policy document commits the government to six concrete actions in the next 15 months: permitting regulated stablecoins to trade on licensed virtual-asset trading platforms; tokenizing HKD 1.3 trillion in Exchange Fund Bills; launching 24/7 wholesale CBDC settlement via the EnsembleTX platform; standing up a digital-bond issuance platform through CMU OmniClear; activating digital-asset custody surveillance in the second half of 2026; and deploying CrypTech big-data market surveillance and AML surveillance in 2027.
The address arrives at a moment when Hong Kong's tokenized-product AUM has reached HK$10.7 billion (approximately US$1.4 billion) across 13 publicly offered products — a sevenfold increase from the prior year. Two stablecoin issuer licences have been granted under the Stablecoins Ordinance, and 13 virtual-asset trading platforms hold SFC licences. The policy effectively transforms Hong Kong from a licensing-stage jurisdiction into one attempting full-stack tokenized-finance infrastructure, from issuance through settlement.
The 2026 Policy Address, delivered September 16, is John Lee's fifth as Chief Executive and the first to include a five-year economic development plan. The digital-assets section falls under a broader fintech and financial-markets development chapter. Financial Secretary Paul Chan, who presented budget-linked details in February 2026, described digital assets and fintech as "driving Hong Kong's new growth engine."
The timing is notable. The address landed the same day as the U.S. Senate's failed cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, which fell short at 49-50. Where Washington stalled, Hong Kong laid out a sequenced implementation calendar with specific deadlines. This contrast — legislative failure in the U.S. against an executable roadmap in Asia — shapes the competitive dynamic for institutional capital flows into regulated digital-asset markets.
The most immediate policy change: regulated stablecoins will become tradeable on SFC-licensed virtual-asset trading platforms (VATPs). Previously, licensed platforms could list select cryptocurrencies, but fiat-backed stablecoins were excluded from the tradeable universe. The policy also permits stablecoins as a settlement asset for tokenized money market funds.
Two entities hold stablecoin issuer licences under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect August 1, 2025. On April 10, 2026, the HKMA granted licences to:
Both are bank-backed or bank-adjacent issuers, reflecting the HKMA's preference for institutional-grade stablecoin supply. When these stablecoins become tradeable on the 13 licensed VATPs, Hong Kong will have created a closed-loop regulated stablecoin market: licensed issuers, licensed trading venues, licensed custody.
The SFC further expanded the VATP regime on April 20, 2026, permitting secondary trading of authorized investment products — including tokenized money market funds — on licensed platforms. This connects stablecoin liquidity directly to tokenized fund settlement.
The HKMA will pilot the tokenization of Exchange Fund Bills by the end of 2026. Exchange Fund Bills and Notes are the Hong Kong government's primary debt instruments, with outstanding bills exceeding HKD 1.3 trillion (approximately USD 167 billion).
The stated objective: allow banks to utilize tokenized Exchange Fund Bills for asset and liability management on a 24/7 basis. Currently, these instruments settle during standard market hours through the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU). Tokenization would enable round-the-clock repo-style transactions and collateral management.
The HKMA's Tokenised Bond Expert Group is conducting a second-phase legal review in coordination with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. Group participants include JPMorgan Securities, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, Ant Digital, and HashKey Group. The review addresses the legal treatment of tokenized government securities under Hong Kong's existing ordinances — a necessary precursor to full-lifecycle tokenization covering issuance, trading, coupon payments, and redemption.
This is among the largest single-instrument tokenization targets globally. For comparison, the ECB's Pontes project focuses on euro-area wholesale settlement but does not target a specific government bond pool of this scale. The U.S. Treasury has not announced tokenization plans for Treasury bills.
The HKMA plans to introduce 24-hour wholesale CBDC settlement through the EnsembleTX platform by the end of 2026. EnsembleTX has been processing real-value transactions involving digital assets and tokenized deposits throughout 2026, with progressive upgrades toward full 24/7 operations.
The architecture separates two money layers: tokenized deposits represent commercial bank money, while the wholesale CBDC provides central bank money for interbank settlement. This dual-money structure mirrors the existing monetary system — commercial bank money for transactions, central bank money for final settlement — but extends settlement hours from market-hours-only to continuous.
The implications are structural. If EnsembleTX achieves 24/7 CBDC settlement, Hong Kong would become one of the first jurisdictions to operate tokenized central bank money for settlement alongside tokenized commercial bank money for payments — a full tokenized monetary stack. This directly addresses a core friction in current digital-asset markets: the inability to settle against central bank money outside banking hours.
CMU OmniClear Holdings, a subsidiary of the HKMA, is building a digital asset platform for tokenized bond issuance and settlement, with launch planned during 2026. Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced the project in his February 25, 2026, budget speech.
The platform will initially handle tokenized bonds, with planned expansion to other digital assets. A critical design feature: interoperability with other regional tokenization platforms. Chan stated the platform would "slowly be expanded to include other digital assets and connected to other tokenization platforms in the area."
Hong Kong has prior tokenized bond experience. The government issued a HK$10 billion digital bond in 2025. CMU OmniClear moves this from one-off issuances to a standing platform for ongoing tokenized debt issuance and post-trade processing. This transitions tokenized bonds from pilot phase to permanent market infrastructure.
Two surveillance systems are scheduled for deployment:
Digital Asset Custody Surveillance — the SFC will begin operating this system in the second half of 2026. The system monitors custodial arrangements at licensed platforms, a response to the sector-wide pattern of custody failures (the Policy Address does not reference specific incidents, but the DeFi sector lost $1.3 billion to stolen keys in the 12 months through September 2026, according to industry data).
CrypTech Surveillance — expected to activate big-data market surveillance and anti-money-laundering surveillance components in 2027. This covers trade-pattern analysis, wash-trading detection, and cross-platform AML monitoring across licensed venues.
The surveillance timeline means Hong Kong's 13 licensed VATPs will operate under automated monitoring by mid-2027. The SFC is, in effect, building out the equivalent of traditional exchange surveillance — SMARTS, NICE Actimize-type systems — for digital-asset markets.
Separately, a bill to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO) is expected to be introduced into the Legislative Council in 2026, broadening the scope of virtual-asset service provider regulation.
The policy commitments correspond to measurable institutional adoption:
| Metric | Value | As Of | |---|---|---| | Licensed VATPs | 13 | February 2026 | | Licensed stablecoin issuers | 2 | April 2026 | | Tokenized product AUM | HK$10.7B (~US$1.4B) | March 2026 | | Tokenized product AUM growth | ~7x year-over-year | March 2026 | | Publicly offered tokenized products | 13 | March 2026 | | Exchange Fund Bills outstanding | >HKD 1.3T (~US$167B) | September 2026 | | Tokenised Bond Expert Group members | 6+ (JPMorgan, HSBC, StanChart, UBS, Ant Digital, HashKey) | September 2026 |
The sevenfold increase in tokenized product AUM, from approximately HK$1.5 billion to HK$10.7 billion, indicates that institutional allocators are responding to the licensing infrastructure. Digital Asset Clearing Center (DACC.HK) raised US$10 million in May 2026 specifically to build tokenized financial market infrastructure in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's sequenced approach contrasts with the regulatory postures of its principal competitors:
United States: The CLARITY Act failed 49-50 in the Senate on September 15. The CFTC filed crypto rulemaking with the White House on September 18. The SEC granted a five-year exemption for tokenized stock trading but has no stablecoin-issuance framework. No government bond tokenization program exists.
European Union: MiCA took full effect in December 2024, with stablecoin issuance rules operational since June 2024. The ECB launched its Pontes platform for wholesale euro settlement. However, no EU member state has announced government bond tokenization at scale comparable to Hong Kong's HKD 1.3 trillion target.
Singapore: MAS has operated Project Guardian since 2022, with multiple tokenization pilots. Singapore does not yet have a stablecoin-specific licensing regime equivalent to Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance.
Japan: Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act overhaul, reducing crypto tax to 20%, was announced in September 2026. Japan's stablecoin framework allows bank-issued stablecoins but has not announced government bond tokenization.
Hong Kong's distinguishing feature is the vertical integration of its approach: stablecoin issuance, stablecoin trading, government bond tokenization, wholesale CBDC settlement, digital bond platform, and automated surveillance — all under a single policy framework with stated deadlines.
The 2026 Policy Address marks a transition from licensing and permitting to infrastructure buildout. Hong Kong is not asking whether digital assets should be regulated — that question was answered by the Stablecoins Ordinance and the VATP licensing regime. The current phase addresses how tokenized finance integrates into the existing monetary and settlement architecture.
The HKD 1.3 trillion Exchange Fund Bill tokenization target and the EnsembleTX CBDC settlement timeline are the most significant commitments. If executed on schedule, they would place Hong Kong's central bank money and government debt instruments on tokenized rails — a structural change to the city's financial plumbing that extends well beyond the digital-asset sector itself.
Execution risk remains. The Tokenised Bond Expert Group's legal review is ongoing. EnsembleTX's 24/7 operations depend on bank readiness. CrypTech surveillance deployment in 2027 could surface compliance gaps at licensed platforms. But the policy framework is now public, sequenced, and measurable. Whether Hong Kong delivers will be observable against specific deadlines.