The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong will keep Julia Leung as chief until December 2028, extending the current leadership through the next regulatory phase. The move locks in the present crypto policy and aligns with the August 2025 stablecoin deadline, giving the market a predictable path. Stablecoin issuers, token asset managers and compliance teams across Asia now face a consistent rule set for three extra years.
The government seeks steady leadership while it rolls out several crypto rules, anchoring market expectations. The HKMA will enforce the stablecoin licence from August 2025, while the SFC oversees tokens that qualify as securities under the Securities or Futures Ordinance with a five-part plan centered on clean markets and protected investors.
The SFC has already issued licences—in 2025, PantherTrade and YAX received approval to list only Bitcoin, Ether, Avalanche and Chainlink. An applicant pays about USD 10,000, maintains share capital between USD 640,000 and USD 1,000,000, and typically waits more than twelve months for a decision, reinforcing a rigorous gatekeeping process.
Hong Kong is also advancing tokenised real world assets (RWA) and discussing standards with South Korea to align approaches. The city aims to attract Web3 firms leaving other centres after clean ups in places such as Singapore, leveraging institutional-grade infrastructure. Technical definition: RWA are off-chain assets—real estate, securities, commodities—mirrored by tokens on a blockchain.
Implications for firms and markets
More licence filings are expected as firms move to secure market access under stable rules, and companies will hire extra compliance and KYC/AML staff to meet supervisory expectations.
A fixed entry price set by capital and fee requirements will block smaller exchanges, concentrating early activity among well-capitalised players.
A cautious token list means only a few coins will trade initially, and liquidity is likely to stay thin until the framework matures and listings broaden.
An RWA token window opens as custodians build institutional vaults for new products, positioning the market for tokenised assets under clearer rules.
The next hard date is the August 2025 stablecoin rule. Leung’s term through December 2028 fixes the timetable and shapes product and compliance choices for every exchange, issuer and manager in the period, anchoring Hong Kong’s push to define regional crypto standards.
