Hong Kong officials double down on end-2026 deadline for crypto licensing bill — SkimNews
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- Hong Kong government reaffirmed plans to submit an amendment bill "within this year" to establish licensing regimes covering digital asset trading, custody, advisory, and management services.
- Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, announced the timeline at a Monday policy briefing, framing the bill as a response to "innovative developments" in financial technology.
- The end-2026 deadline was first disclosed by Hui in January, when he said regulators planned to submit a draft proposal on crypto asset regulation before year-end.
- The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has begun processing stablecoin issuer license applications, and in April granted its first such licenses to Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
- The framework covers four distinct categories of digital asset activities — trading, custody, advisory, and management services — making it one of the more broadly scoped crypto bills in the region.
Why it matters: Hong Kong firms offering crypto trading, custody, advisory, or management services face a new licensing regime by end-2026, a hard legislative deadline that gives them roughly 12 months to prepare. The HKMA already moved first in April by licensing Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC as stablecoin issuers, so the broader bill is filling in what's left: trading, custody, advisory, and management — a timeline that locks in regulatory clarity while the industry is still maturing.
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