Hong Kong Sticks to End-2026 Deadline for New Crypto Licensing Rules

The Hong Kong government said it will submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026 to create licensing regimes for digital asset trading, custody, advisory and management services. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui told a Monday policy briefing the government would submit the bill "within this year," according to a government statement.

For anyone holding tokens on platforms serving Hong Kong, this matters more than the date alone. A licensing regime sets who is allowed to operate, what those firms must report, and what happens to customer funds if they do not qualify. But which four categories the bill actually covers, and which regulator watches each one, remains unconfirmed in the report.

The government says the bill responds to "innovative developments" in financial technology. It does not name the parent legislation the amendment would modify. That gap matters. An amendment to the Securities and Futures Ordinance treats the activity as a securities matter; another route would not. Whether the four categories go into one bill or separate bills is also unconfirmed, as is how each maps to the SFC or the HKMA.

The government has moved on the pieces it can move now. In January, Hui said the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had begun processing license applications for stablecoin issuers. The HKMA granted its first stablecoin licences to Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited on 10 April 2026, under the Stablecoins Ordinance, effective that day.

The granting of stablecoin issuer licences is an important milestone for the development of digital assets in Hong Kong. — HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue

Both licensees said they intend to complete the necessary preparation work and launch business in the coming few months. Meanwhile, the FSTB and the SFC published consultation conclusions on legislative proposals for regulating virtual asset advisory and management services on 26 May 2026.

What still has not been established:

• The current stage of the proposed bill in the Legislative Council
• The specific ordinance the amendment bill amends
• Whether the four categories will be one bill or several
• Whether the new regime replaces or sits alongside existing virtual asset trading platform licensing
• Whether platforms already licensed as intermediaries are affected

Hui first said in January that regulators planned to submit a draft proposal before the end of 2026. That timing has held across separate announcements.

For holders, the practical question is what becomes of the platforms they use. If the regime is enacted as scheduled, trading and custody services in Hong Kong would require a licence. What happens to platforms already licensed as intermediaries, and the exact scope of the advisory and management services regimes after the May 2026 consultation, is unconfirmed. The full text of the government statement released after the briefing was not available to this report.