Hong Kong Set to Concern First Stablecoin Licenses in Q1 2026 – Decrypt

Briefly
The Hong Kong Financial Authority will concern licenses to stablecoin suppliers within the first quarter of 2026.
Hong Kong introduced in its stablecoin regime in August final yr.
The town is attempting to strike a stability between welcoming suppliers and defending buyers.
Hong Kong will concern a batch of licenses to stablecoin suppliers within the first quarter of this yr, Monetary Secretary Paul Chan advised World Financial Discussion board attendees in Davos on Tuesday.This would be the first issued since Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime took impact on August 1 final yr.Firms providing or advertising and marketing stablecoins to retail buyers should acquire approval from the Hong Kong Financial Authority. The method contains assembly compliance necessities round reserve property, redemptions at par worth, segregation of consumer funds and following anti-money laundering guidelines.Regulators haven't disclosed which firms will likely be among the many first batch of licensed stablecoin suppliers. As of September 2025, 36 firms have utilized, based on native newspaper The Normal.Among the many identified candidates is a three way partnership between Normal Chartered, Animoca Manufacturers and HKT. Ant Group’s Alipay and Chinese language e-commerce large JD.com have been additionally a part of an earlier stablecoin sandbox, however have been reportedly advised by mainland authorities to droop their makes an attempt for licensing in Hong Kong.Chan’s go to to Davos is a part of a wider push to lift Hong Kong’s profile as a fintech hub. Chan described Hong Kong’s method to digital property as “proactive but prudent”.“Monetary improvements, resembling digital property, not solely improve transparency, effectivity, inclusiveness and threat administration in monetary companies, but additionally facilitate more practical capital allocation to the actual economic system,” he stated.Stablecoins across the worldInterest in stablecoins has ramped up globally. With a market cap of $309 billion, based on DefiLlama, the know-how has attracted the curiosity of finance giants from JP Morgan and Financial institution of America to Paypal and Visa.Inside the crypto trade, there have been calls from the likes of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for “higher decentralized stablecoins” which can be extra resilient and fewer depending on the greenback.Paul Faecks, CEO of Plasma, advised Decrypt that the main target for creating the stablecoin trade must be on “creating open, impartial rails that anybody can construct on, whereas nonetheless being sturdy sufficient to energy international funds for on a regular basis folks and retailers”.“Because the stablecoin area continues to develop, mature, and achieve institutional acceptance, the actual client and retail functions for the know-how will likely be unlocked, and it'll turn out to be extremely related in day-to-day life for tens of millions of individuals,” he stated.On prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt's dad or mum firm Dastan, customers are cautious on the short-term prospects for stablecoins, putting only a 3% likelihood in the marketplace cap of all stablecoins topping $360 billion this month.Hong Kong and cryptoHong Kong’s efforts to turn out to be a world Web3 hub have been met with combined success because it focuses on integrating crypto into the normal finance trade. It has introduced in licensing regimes not only for stablecoin issuers but additionally exchanges, whereas guidelines for over-the-counter crypto trade are additionally within the works. Since 2023, it has granted licenses to 11 buying and selling platforms.The federal government has additionally promoted tokenization by way of the issuance of $2.1 billion price of tokenised inexperienced bonds. It was additionally one the primary jurisdictions to supply spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum at the beginning of 2024.Nevertheless it has needed to cope with a number of crypto-related monetary scandals. Most notably amongst them was the 2024 collapse of the trade JPEX, during which prospects misplaced some $205 million in funds. It has been dubbed town’s largest-ever fraud case.In November, Hong Kong authorities introduced fees in opposition to 16 folks linked to the trade, together with influencers who promoted JPEX. Courts will hear the primary instances in March.Every day Debrief NewsletterStart on daily basis with the highest information tales proper now, plus authentic options, a podcast, movies and extra.