
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui confirmed plans for a broader crypto licensing framework covering four categories.
The Hong Kong government plans to submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026 establishing licensing regimes for digital asset trading, custody, advisory, and management services.
AI-generated summary
Hong Kong regulators have been moving toward establishing formal regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and digital asset service providers.
The Hong Kong government reaffirmed its plans to submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026 to establish licensing regimes for digital asset trading, custody, advisory and management services as part of its broader crypto licensing bill.
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Christopher Hui, told a Monday policy briefing that the government will submit an amendment bill “within this year” to establish a broader framework for digital asset activities, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong government.
The secretary said the amendment bill covering the four categories will come in response to the “innovative developments” in financial technology.
In January, Hui revealed that regulators planned to submit a draft proposal related to crypto asset regulation before the end of 2026. He also said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had begun processing license applications for stablecoin issuers.
In April, the HKMA granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses to Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Hong Kong government will submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026.
Very likely · Within months

Ondo Finance is expanding into private markets by introducing Ondo Private Markets, offering tokenized notes linked to an unnamed pre-IPO artificial intelligence company's share value. Eligible investors can hold notes in self-custody or trade them 24/7.

Crypto exchange OKX has launched OKX Money, a stablecoin savings and payments app in parts of Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, offering up to 10% APY on USDG balances without staking or lockup. The app supports over 50 currencies, converts deposits to dollar-backed stablecoins, and allows spending via virtual or physical cards. OKX did not disclose the source of the yield or specific launch markets, citing regulatory compliance. The product joins a growing trend of stablecoin use in cross-border flows, which rose 77.5% to $220.3 billion in the year ending June 2026, driven by trade, remittances and savings.

Bitcoin treasury company Strive disclosed an optional program to repurchase up to $500 million of its variable-rate perpetual preferred stock (SATA), exceeding its $284.7 million cash balance as of Oct. 2. The program allows management to weigh Bitcoin purchases against retiring dividend-paying preferred shares, with no obligation to use the full capacity or established funding source. Strive held 29,462 BTC as of Oct. 2 after buying 2,000 Bitcoin between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2 at an average price of approximately $84,422.

Payward, parent company of Kraken, has linked to Singapore Gulf Bank's SGB Net clearing network to provide 24/7 US-dollar funding for select institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf, enabling immediate cash deployment for digital-asset activity, with plans to expand clients and currencies over time.

Strive purchased 2,000 Bitcoin between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2 at an average price of $84,422 per coin, totaling roughly $169 million, its largest Bitcoin acquisition in four months. The company's Bitcoin holdings now stand at 29,462 BTC valued at about $2.5 billion, funded largely through sales of its SATA preferred stock which pays a 13% annual dividend.

The CFTC has opened rulemaking for regulations CTX and CAM to create a federal framework for retail leveraged crypto trading, offering exchanges access to leverage products in exchange for accepting deeper oversight, while Congress remains stalled on comprehensive crypto market-structure legislation.