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Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the government will issue the first batch of licences for issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins “next month,” in remarks delivered in the 2026–27 Budget speech to the Legislative Council on 25 February 2026. The statement positions March 2026 as the first expected issuance of stablecoin issuer licences under Hong Kong’s new regime.
In the same Budget speech, Chan said the government will introduce a bill in 2026 to establish licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers, expanding the perimeter of supervised activity around issuance, distribution and safekeeping of tokenised instruments. HKMA’s stablecoin issuers page has stated that, at present, there is no licensed stablecoin issuer on its public register.
The stablecoin framework itself has already been legislated and commenced: the government and HKMA said the Stablecoins Bill passed in May 2025 to create a licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers, including restrictions on who may offer such stablecoins to the public and when retail distribution is permitted. Separately, the government’s June 2025 “Policy Statement 2.0” said the Securities and Futures Commission would be the leading authority for the forthcoming licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers.
For RWA and tokenised securities markets—including structures used for real estate-backed instruments—the Budget also set out operational measures tied to tokenisation plumbing, including planned guidance to clarify that debenture-holder registers can be kept using distributed ledger technology and exploration of electronic signatures for bond issuance documents. Reuters separately reported earlier this month that HKMA’s chief executive expected the first stablecoin licences in March 2026 and said only a “very small number” would be granted initially.
The developments affect stablecoin issuers seeking authorisation, intermediaries that may distribute fiat-referenced stablecoins in Hong Kong, and digital asset firms that could fall under forthcoming dealing and custody licensing—along with RWA platforms that rely on regulated custody and settlement rails for tokenised claims. In practical terms, the immediate change is the government’s stated timing for the first issuance of stablecoin licences, while the additional dealer/custodian regimes and tokenisation-related guidance remain tied to legislative and policy outputs that have yet to be published in full.
