Hong Kong passed a stablecoin law in May 2025. The Stablecoins Ordinance came into force three months later. Nine months after that, the HKMA has not granted a single license. The panda has counted. The number is still zero.
What is the Hong Kong Stablecoins Ordinance?
The Stablecoins Ordinance, codified as Cap. 626 of the Laws of Hong Kong, was enacted by the Legislative Council on May 21, 2025 and took effect on August 1, 2025. It made the issuance of fiat-referenced stablecoins (FRS) in or from Hong Kong a licensable activity, with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority as the sole licensing authority.
The headline rules are blunt. A licensed issuer must hold reserve assets equal to 100% of the par value of stablecoins in circulation. Those reserves must be high-quality, liquid, and segregated from the issuer's own balance sheet. Holders have a contractual right to redeem at par, and the issuer must publish the reserve composition publicly.
According to the HKMA's stablecoin regulatory page, only licensed issuers and a small set of authorised institutions can offer FRS to retail investors in Hong Kong. Marketing an unlicensed stablecoin to the public is a criminal offence under the Ordinance.
This is not a registration regime. It is full authorisation, with bank-style supervision attached.
The publicly known applicants
The HKMA has not published a comprehensive applicant list. The public ones are pedigreed.
Standard Chartered partnered with Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) to apply jointly. Jingdong Coinlink, the crypto subsidiary of e-commerce group JD.com, applied independently. RD InnoTech filed separately. Ant Group's Hong Kong arm filed too. Industry sources counted more than fifty informal expressions of interest before the application window narrowed to a serious shortlist.
According to CoinDesk's policy coverage, HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue has said publicly that only a "single-digit" number of licenses will be granted in the first batch. That is not a forecast. That is a target.
What the confirmed contenders have in common is bank-grade pedigree. No standalone crypto-native applicant has publicly cleared the HKMA's pre-application scrutiny. The regime is open to non-banks in principle. In practice, every named contender sits next to either a global bank or a payments-licensed parent.
The case for moving slowly
The HKMA's published rationale is that it wants to avoid the regulatory accidents that have happened elsewhere. Algorithmic depegs, opaque reserves, and unredeemed paper claims are not theoretical risks. They are recent history.
A stablecoin is, by definition, a private liability dressed up as money. Hong Kong's view is that issuing private money to the public in a financial centre requires the same supervision as issuing a deposit, not the lighter touch of a software product. The Ordinance reflects that view in every clause.
But here's the catch. Slow regulation also creates competitive friction. While Hong Kong reviews, the EU's MiCA stablecoin regime is already enforced, the US GENIUS Act has been law since July 2025, and the UK's FCA gateway has a dated October 2027 commencement. Issuers serving global flow can pick a jurisdiction where the rulebook is final. Hong Kong's bet is that "first issued under a triple-A supervisor" is worth more than "first to market".
According to CoinGecko's global market data, total crypto market capitalisation stood at $2.72 trillion on May 15, 2026, with Tether's USDT alone accounting for $189.75 billion. The stablecoin market is not waiting for any single jurisdiction. It is, however, watching them all.
How does Hong Kong compare to MiCA, GENIUS, and the UK?
Four jurisdictions, four different speeds.
| Framework | Jurisdiction | Effective date | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiCA stablecoin titles | EU (27 states) | June 30, 2024 | E-money tokens, asset-referenced tokens |
| GENIUS Act | US (federal) | July 18, 2025 enacted | Payment stablecoins |
| Stablecoins Ordinance | Hong Kong | August 1, 2025 | Fiat-referenced stablecoins |
| UK FSMA crypto regime | UK | October 25, 2027 commencement | Stablecoins plus eight other activities |
The EU moved first, in scope and timing. The US legislated quickly but is still finalising rulemaking. Hong Kong's law is live, but its licensing window is functionally closed until the HKMA grants the first batch. The UK chose a four-step procedural marathon to 2027.
For an issuer choosing where to incorporate, the difference is operational. An EU CASP can market a MiCA-compliant token today. A Hong Kong issuer still needs a licence that has not been granted to anyone. A UK applicant cannot submit the full application until September 30, 2026. None of these four frameworks is the same product.
What to watch next
Four dated checkpoints sit on the Hong Kong calendar.
- First HKMA license grant: expected late 2026, single-digit issuers, no public schedule
- HKMA reserve disclosure rules: detailed guidance pending, expected before the first license
- Public marketing enforcement: prosecution risk for unlicensed FRS solicitation under the Ordinance
- Sandbox-to-license transition: existing sandbox participants must reapply under the live regime
Dadacoin is a memecoin on BSC, not a stablecoin. The Hong Kong calendar still matters because Hong Kong-licensed stablecoins will eventually settle a meaningful share of Asian retail flow into all of crypto, including BSC's stablecoin-fed venues. The full breakdown of overlapping regimes sits in our crypto regulation coverage.
The panda is patient. The HKMA is more so.
