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

Hong Kong will difficulty a batch of licenses to stablecoin suppliers within the first quarter of this yr, Monetary Secretary Paul Chan instructed 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 traders should get hold of approval from the Hong Kong Financial Authority. The method consists of 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 shall 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 recognized 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 instructed 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 boost Hong Kong’s profile as a fintech hub. Chan described Hong Kong’s strategy to digital property as “proactive but prudent”.

“Monetary improvements, reminiscent of digital property, not solely improve transparency, effectivity, inclusiveness and threat administration in monetary providers, but additionally facilitate more practical capital allocation to the true financial system,” he mentioned.

Stablecoins all over the world

Curiosity in stablecoins has ramped up globally. With a market cap of $309 billion, based on DefiLlama, the expertise 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 might be extra resilient and fewer depending on the greenback.

Paul Faecks, CEO of Plasma, instructed Decrypt that the main focus for creating the stablecoin trade ought to be on “creating open, impartial rails that anybody can construct on, whereas nonetheless being strong sufficient to energy international funds for on a regular basis individuals and retailers”.

“Because the stablecoin area continues to develop, mature, and acquire institutional acceptance, the true client and retail purposes for the expertise shall be unlocked, and it’ll change into extremely related in day-to-day life for tens of millions of individuals,” he mentioned.

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 crypto

Hong Kong’s efforts to change into 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 change 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 first of 2024.

However it has needed to cope with a number of crypto-related monetary scandals. Most notably amongst them was the 2024 collapse of the change JPEX, through which clients misplaced some $205 million in funds. It has been dubbed the town’s largest-ever fraud case.

In November, Hong Kong authorities introduced expenses towards 16 individuals linked to the change, together with influencers who promoted JPEX. Courts will hear the primary circumstances in March.