HK building an ecosystem for virtual assets, says Hui

Hong Kong is continuously reviewing and refining its regulatory framework to build a comprehensive ecosystem for virtual assets, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said at Consensus Hong Kong 2025.

This includes the development of comprehensive frameworks that include virtual asset exchanges, stablecoin issuers, custodians and over-the-counter trading activities.

Hui said the government is exploring the tokenization of gold and testing currency tokenization through sandbox initiatives.

Efforts are also underway to establish a regulatory regime for stablecoin issuers.

He added that the government is linking digital finance to the real economy and has taken decisive steps to regulate stablecoin issuers.

With technology advancing at a rapid pace, Hui said artificial intelligence is both an opportunity and a necessity to strengthen the digital infrastructure, highlighting blockchain-based decentralized AI platforms as key to ensuring data privacy, security and collaborative innovation.

He said tokenization, adoption of Web3 innovations into the real economy and integration of AI can thrive under a reliable and adaptable regulatory system.

Gordon Yang