Government plans to supercharge the digital assets industry, with crypto dealing and custody regimes the icing on the cake for a holistic regulatory framework.
By Simon Hawkins, Adrian Fong, and Sam Maxson
On 26 June 2025, the Hong Kong Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (FSTB) issued its second policy statement on the development of digital assets to “scale Hong Kong to new heights of global digital asset leadership”. The statement advances the FSTB’s strategic vision to establish
Taking effect in August 2025, the new legislation will bring issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins into the regulatory perimeter.
By Simon Hawkins, Adrian Fong, and Sam Maxson
On 21 May 2025, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed the Stablecoin Bill, which was then gazetted as the Stablecoins Ordinance. It will come into effect on 1 August 2025.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has also issued consultations for its proposed (i) Guideline on Supervision of Licensed Stablecoin
The case involves substantive litigation that could yield important legal principles for the treatment of decentralised projects.
By Dominic Geiser, Simon Hawkins, Sam Maxson, and Truman Mak
Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAO) are unique structures that operate autonomously in accordance with preset rules, utilising a blockchain and coordinated through a distributed consensus model. Whilst numerous DAOs are operating in the blockchain industry, these organisations are still new in legal terms and their precise legal status (including ownership and
The government will enact the new legislation to bring issuers of fiat-referencing stablecoins into the regulatory perimeter.
By Simon Hawkins, Adrian Fong, and Sam Maxson
On 17 July 2024, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released the consultation conclusions on their legislative proposal for a regulatory regime governing stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong (Consultation Conclusions). The next day, the HKMA followed with its own press release announcing the first batch
Implementation of Basel Committee cryptoassets standard to provide additional clarity for banks looking to engage in cryptoassets business.
By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong
On 7 February 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released a consultation paper on its proposal for implementing new regulations on the prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures (Consultation Paper).
The Consultation Paper comes shortly after the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the HKMA issued a consultation paper in December 2023 outlining their legislative proposal for a regulatory regime governing stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong (see this Latham blog post). On 20 February 2024, the HKMA also published guidance on digital asset custody services and sale and distribution of tokenised products conducted by banks. Together, these papers offer guidance and greater certainty to banks interested in providing digital asset services (including digital asset issuance, custody, and dealing services).
This blog post summarises the proposed regulations set out in the Consultation Paper as well as next steps for banks, known in Hong Kong as authorised institutions (AI).
The proposed regulatory framework would create substantive obligations on issuers of fiat-referencing stablecoins to safeguard the public.
By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong
On 27 December 2023, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released a consultation paper on their legislative proposal for a regulatory regime governing stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong (Consultation Paper). The HKMA followed with its own press release announcing a future sandbox arrangement for stablecoin issuers.
This blog post summarises the proposed Hong Kong regulatory framework set out in the Consultation Paper, and next steps for stablecoin issuers who may fall within scope of the proposed regime.
Revamped SFC and HKMA guidance applies to intermediaries that distribute products or provide dealing, advisory, and asset management services related to virtual assets.
By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong
On 20 October 2023, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a joint circular (Joint Circular) to provide updated guidance to intermediaries conducting virtual asset (VA) activities. The Joint Circular revises a previous joint circular issued on 28 January 2022 (see Latham’s Client Alert).
The need to update the 2022 joint circular emerged after a new regulatory regime for virtual asset trading platforms (VATP) was launched in June 2023, which allowed such platforms to onboard retail investors (see Latham’s Client Alert) for the first time.
The regulatory perimeter continues to expand as the Securities and Futures Commission introduces a comprehensive regime to regulate virtual asset service providers.
By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong
In December 2022, Hong Kong passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022 (Amendment Bill), which will establish a new licensing regime and statutory framework for virtual asset service providers from 1 June 2023. Initially, the Amendment Bill will apply to anyone operating a centralised virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong or actively marketing such services to the Hong Kong public.
This is the first decision by the Hong Kong Court on whether clients of a crypto exchange have proprietary claims to cryptocurrencies held on the platform. It confirms that cryptocurrency constitutes property under Hong Kong law.
By Dominic Geiser, Simon Hawkins, Howard K. H. Lam, Adrian Hei-Yin Fong, Flora F. W. Innes, and Tsun Ming (Truman) Mak
In a recent landmark decision of Re Gatecoin Limited [2023] HKCFI 914 involving a Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchange in liquidation, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance expressly confirmed for the first time that cryptocurrency is “property” under Hong Kong law and can be held on trust. This decision aligns Hong Kong with the position in other major common law jurisdictions.
The court also found, based on the facts and circumstances of this particular case, that the cryptocurrency exchange did not hold assets on trust for its customers under its latest applicable terms and conditions, thereby rendering such customers unsecured creditors, rather than beneficiaries, of the exchange.
Hong Kong’s licensing regime for virtual asset service providers to take effect in March 2023.
By Simon Hawkins, Adrian Fong, and Shirley Wong
On 24 June 2022, the Hong Kong government gazetted the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022 (Amendment Bill). The Amendment Bill proposes changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615) (AMLO) in order to introduce a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers (VASP) and impose statutory anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) obligations on the VASP sector.