Hong Kong’s two main financial regulators have outlined parallel plans to expand the city’s digital-asset market infrastructure and oversight. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is preparing to move key settlement functions onto blockchain-based rails, while the Securities and Futures Commission is drafting a new licensing framework for digital assets.
The announcements point to a broader regulatory push that spans payments, securities settlement, custody controls and future rules for tokenized products. Both agencies framed the work as part of Hong Kong’s wider policy agenda rather than a single standalone crypto initiative.
CMU upgrade targets continuous on-chain settlement
The HKMA said the Central Moneymarkets Unit, Hong Kong’s debt-securities settlement platform, will launch new services by the end of the year that enable real-time settlement on-chain around the clock. The change would shift a core piece of market plumbing toward blockchain-based operation rather than limiting digital-asset activity to pilot programs or peripheral products.
According to the regulator, the upgraded CMU is being designed to support a digital Hong Kong dollar as well as a central bank digital currency. The HKMA also said it will study whether tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins could settle directly through the CMU, which would extend the system beyond conventional securities workflows.
SFC sets out licensing and oversight agenda
Separately, the SFC published an action strategy tied to Hong Kong’s Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address. A central item is a new digital-asset licensing regime, though the source material did not specify the full scope or timeline of those rules.
Over a longer horizon, the SFC said it intends to build a regulatory framework for tokenized investment products, naming tokenized gold and other real-world assets as examples. The regulator also said it will strengthen investor protection and market integrity measures by supervising how digital assets are held in custody, deploying a surveillance tool to detect suspicious activity, tightening anti-money-laundering monitoring and gradually applying artificial intelligence across its oversight systems.
Stablecoins and tokenized money remain at an early stage
The policy plans come as Hong Kong’s stablecoin market is still relatively small. The HKMA has issued stablecoin licenses to HSBC and to Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered together with HKT and Animoca Brands.
Anchorpoint’s HKDAP token was the first to go live and can be redeemed one-for-one for Hong Kong dollars. Standard Chartered plans to use the token for settlement of tokenized money market funds, indicating one of the practical use cases regulators may be considering as they examine how tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins could connect to core settlement infrastructure.
Broader tokenization push extends to commodities
The article also places the digital-asset plans alongside developments in Hong Kong’s commodities market. HKEX is preparing yuan-denominated gold futures for early next year after reviving a US-dollar gold contract.
That move was described as part of a broader shift toward yuan-priced precious metals and commodities products. For now, the next confirmed milestones are the CMU’s year-end rollout of 24/7 on-chain settlement services and further details from the SFC on its proposed digital-asset licensing regime and later tokenized-product rules.
Source: Cryptopolitan