Chan Maobo: Hong Kong to issue stablecoin licenses in early 2026, with $2.1 billion in tokenized green bonds issued

Article by: Liang Yu

Editor: Zhao Yidan

On January 21, 2026, in Davos, Switzerland, winter snow remains, and a heated discussion about the future of global finance is underway. Hong Kong SAR Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced to the world that Hong Kong is expected to issue its first stablecoin-related licenses within the year and reaffirmed the principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulation.” This statement is consistent with his half-year-old confirmation in December 2024 of plans to introduce a stablecoin licensing system this year.

This upcoming policy is not an isolated move. In his Davos speech, Paul Chan systematically outlined Hong Kong’s strategic blueprint for digital assets: since 2023, Hong Kong has issued licenses to 11 virtual asset service providers (VASPs), establishing a clear compliant trading market; at the same time, the Hong Kong government has led by example, successfully issuing three tranches of tokenized green bonds totaling approximately US$2.1 billion (about HK$27 billion), becoming a leading example among government issuances worldwide. Additionally, by establishing a regulatory sandbox to foster innovation in financial technology, this forms the third cornerstone of the strategy.

As the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) in the global market explodes in 2024, it has generally faced the dilemma of “favorable but not popular”—private network experiments are lively, but the essential infrastructure that is public, trustworthy, and highly liquid remains absent. At this moment, Hong Kong’s combination of “trading platform licenses, stablecoin licenses, and official tokenized bonds” reveals a deeper intent: it aims to transcend the simple positioning as a cryptocurrency trading hub and systematically facilitate the entry of trillions of traditional financial assets into the digital world by building a government-backed, well-regulated “official road.” This may be the most profound paradigm shift that the “Hong Kong solution” brings to global RWA development.

1. China’s Hong Kong Three-Step Strategy: A Clear Compliance Path

Hong Kong’s digital asset policy is not a fleeting trend but a long-term, interconnected strategy. Understanding its internal logic requires extending the timeline to see its clear progression from “building venues” to “connecting bloodlines” and then to “setting benchmarks.”

The first step is establishing compliant trading venues. In June 2023, Hong Kong’s virtual asset service provider (VASP) licensing regime officially took effect. By the time of Paul Chan’s Davos speech, Hong Kong had issued licenses to 11 platforms. This step is crucial as it answers the question of “where assets are traded compliantly,” bringing previously gray-area trading activities under the same strict anti-money laundering and investor protection regulations as traditional finance. This provides a safe and credible “main stage” for subsequent financial innovations.

The second step is building compliant payment and value anchoring tools—namely, stablecoins. The establishment of trading venues solves the “venue” problem, but efficient connection between the digital asset world and the real economy still requires a stable “bridge.” That is the significance of Hong Kong’s upcoming stablecoin licensing regime. Paul Chan explicitly stated that relevant licenses are expected to be issued later this year. Similar to VASP licenses, stablecoin licenses aim to place digital asset activities involving payments and settlements under the principles of “same activity, same risk, same regulation.” This means that future stablecoins issued compliantly in Hong Kong, with their reserve asset management, redemption mechanisms, and operational transparency, will be strictly regulated, becoming a “regulatory capillary” connecting DeFi liquidity with the traditional fiat currency world.

The third and most demonstrative step is for the government to personally issue authoritative benchmark assets. The three tranches of tokenized green bonds issued by the Hong Kong government, totaling US$2.1 billion, carry far more significance than just raising capital. They declare to the global market that blockchain technology is not only suitable for cryptocurrencies but can also serve mainstream financial products backed by sovereign credit. These bonds, as “official showpieces,” provide a complete template—from technical solutions and legal structures to regulatory approval—for subsequent tokenization of real estate, private credit, commodities, and other assets. Their scale demonstrates both technical feasibility and acceptance by mainstream institutions.

These three steps form a logically coherent closed loop: first, define a safe “arena” (VASP license); second, provide a stable “general token” (stablecoin license); and finally, have the most credible entity “lead by example” (tokenized green bonds). This combination indicates that Hong Kong is shifting from early defensive regulation to proactively constructing the infrastructure of digital finance through top-level design.

2. Stablecoins and Green Bonds: Opening the “Dui Mai” of RWA Scale

In Hong Kong’s RWA infrastructure blueprint, stablecoins and tokenized green bonds are not merely parallel but complementary and mutually supporting components. They connect the “flow” and “credit” dimensions, opening the “Dui Mai” (main channels) for large-scale RWA application.

Stablecoins play a key role in solving the core “pricing and settlement” challenge within the RWA ecosystem. In traditional DeFi, highly volatile cryptocurrencies are unsuitable as stable valuation units for long-term assets. The emergence of compliant stablecoins provides a digital mirror of fiat currency value for RWA. Whether it’s distributing bond interest, subscribing or redeeming asset shares, or serving as collateral for refinancing, stablecoins can act as efficient, programmable settlement tools. Once Hong Kong issues a stablecoin license, it will enable a regulated, transparent, and well-reserved “digital Hong Kong dollar” or other fiat-backed stablecoins to enter the market. This will greatly reduce operational complexity and exchange rate risks for traditional institutions participating in RWA projects, paving the way for large capital inflows.

Meanwhile, the US$2.1 billion tokenized green bonds issued by the Hong Kong government serve as a “credit benchmark” and “technical model.” First, backed by the top-tier credit of the SAR government, they serve as a powerful market education and credit endorsement for the entire “asset tokenization” concept. When investors see that even the most conservative government bonds can be issued, traded, and settled in token form, acceptance of other asset classes will significantly increase. Second, the issuance process involves complex engineering: selecting blockchain technology, writing smart contracts (for automatic interest payments and redemption), on-chain verification of compliant investors (KYC/AML), and integration with traditional custody and settlement systems (like CMU). This proven technical-legal-regulatory solution can be directly referenced or reused by subsequent commercial entities, significantly reducing trial-and-error costs.

More importantly, the combination of stablecoins and tokenized bonds can spawn entirely new financial scenarios. For example, bond interest could be paid per second and automatically transferred via smart contracts; bond shares could be fractionalized and combined with stablecoins to form liquidity pools, providing market short-term cash management tools; holding bond tokens as collateral for instant stablecoin borrowing and circulation could also become feasible. These operations, difficult or inefficient in traditional finance, will become natural within compliant digital infrastructure. Hong Kong is laying these two channels simultaneously, waiting for their intersection to unleash innovative energy.

3. The Deep Meaning of the “Regulatory Sandbox”: More Than a Firewall, a Testing Ground for Innovation

In Hong Kong’s digital asset strategy, the “regulatory sandbox” is a frequently mentioned but deeply meaningful mechanism. It is far more than a firewall isolating risks from the mainstream market; its deeper strategic intent is to serve as an active “innovation incubator” and “policy regulator.”

The core function of the sandbox is to provide a real testing environment for fintech innovations that are ambiguous or unregulated under existing frameworks. Companies can work closely with regulators within limited scope and with a small number of real users to explore risks and compliance boundaries of their business models. For the RWA field, the significance of the sandbox is especially prominent. RWA projects often span multiple traditional legal areas such as securities law, property law, and contract law, and combine them with blockchain technology, creating many unprecedented issues. For example: does tokenized real estate share represent ownership or income rights? Does automatic collateral liquidation via smart contracts touch on licensing boundaries? Which jurisdiction’s laws apply to cross-border tokenized assets?

Hong Kong’s regulatory sandbox is designed precisely to address these “no-man’s land” issues. Regulators do not need to predefine a perfect set of rules that might stifle innovation but can instead understand technology dynamically, assess risks, and accumulate regulatory experience through specific cases within the sandbox. For RWA projects, this is especially critical. For instance, within the sandbox, they can test how to combine bond interest payments with on-chain identity data for automatic tax reporting; explore using IoT sensor data to trigger insurance token claims; or experiment with establishing decentralized identity (DID) and verifiable credentials (VC) as a compliant onboarding layer for tokenized assets. The results of these experiments will ultimately feed back into and shape Hong Kong’s and international regulatory standards.

Paul Chan emphasized the launch of the regulatory sandbox in Davos to encourage application innovation, recognizing this “learning-by-doing, point-to-surface” flexibility and foresight. This gives Hong Kong’s regulatory philosophy a unique “agility”: maintaining core principles (such as investor protection and financial stability) while encouraging exploration and tolerating trial-and-error. For RWA entrepreneurs and financial institutions eager to break through existing paradigms within compliant boundaries, this environment is highly attractive.

4. The Global Impact of the Hong Kong Solution: Opportunities and Challenges

Hong Kong’s series of initiatives will not be confined locally but will serve as a highly valuable reference model for global RWA development—characterized by “regulatory clarity, technology neutrality, and government guidance.” This model is likely to trigger a significant “port effect”—attracting asset issuers, investors, technology service providers, and professionals worldwide to Hong Kong, making it a global hub for RWA.

For asset issuers from Europe and America (such as large corporations and asset management firms), Hong Kong offers a new financing channel aligned with international standards (such as the OECD’s Crypto Asset Reporting Framework CARF) and with a clear openness to digital assets. For projects in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other emerging markets, Hong Kong is an ideal gateway to connect with global capital. For developers, lawyers, accountants, and other professional service providers, this means a huge new market demand. As Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, pointed out, the future of Web 3 will be driven by infrastructure, regulation, and real users, and Hong Kong is poised to become a key global hub.

However, while optimistic, we must also realistically acknowledge the challenges and unfinished paths of the Hong Kong solution. First, cross-border legal recognition remains difficult. Recognition of tokenized bonds’ validity by Hong Kong law does not imply universal recognition elsewhere. Achieving true global circulation of asset tokenization requires broad consensus on property rights, legal validity of smart contracts, and more—an inherently long process.

Second, the eternal balance between innovation and compliance remains delicate. Even within Hong Kong, regulatory discretion is debated. For example, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association publicly opposed the regulator’s proposal to remove the “exemption threshold” for traditional asset managers investing in virtual assets, citing disproportionate compliance costs and discouragement of exploration. Finding the optimal balance between investor protection and not overly suppressing innovation tests regulatory wisdom.

Third, technological risks and new financial security issues persist. Blockchain technology is still evolving; vulnerabilities in smart contracts, private key management, cross-chain communication, etc., pose risks. Tokenized assets may also introduce new market manipulation, insider trading, and systemic risks. Whether current regulatory tools are fully effective remains to be seen.

Finally, intense international competition exists. Singapore, the UAE, the UK, and others are actively developing their digital asset and RWA sectors, each with different regulatory frameworks and incentives. Whether Hong Kong can maintain its institutional advantages, market vitality, and talent attraction will be a long-term, dynamic race.

Conclusion

Paul Chan’s Davos declaration is less about licenses and bonds and more a declaration of the future of financial infrastructure. Hong Kong is stepping out of the noise of cryptocurrency trading, focusing on laying the foundation, building bridges, and setting benchmarks for the next phase of digital finance—the digital migration of real-world assets.

This “official road” construction may temporarily increase compliance costs for market participants, but in the long run, it paves the way for traditional trillions of capital to enter large-scale, low-risk. When compliant trading venues, trustworthy stablecoin payment tools, and authoritative benchmark assets are in place, RWA will shift from scattered “proof of concept” to large-scale “mass deployment.”

For every participant in the market, Hong Kong’s story sends a clear signal: the era of debating “whether we can do” RWA is over; the key question has shifted to “how to make good use of this increasingly mature infrastructure.” Hong Kong’s “prudence” and “proactiveness” aim to provide certainty amid uncertainty. The bridge connecting the traditional and digital worlds—the Golden Gate Bridge—has already appeared. The next question is: who will be the first to cross and what kind of brilliance they will build on this new continent?

Source of some materials: · “Paul Chan: Hong Kong to issue stablecoin licenses in early 2026, adopting an active and prudent approach to digital asset development” · “Paul Chan: Hong Kong actively and prudently developing digital assets, stablecoin licenses expected later this year”