Hong Kong's Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau has issued the Government’s Policy Statement 2.0 on the Development of Digital Assets, setting out a “LEAP” framework aimed at building a trusted digital asset ecosystem that emphasises risk management and investor protection while supporting use cases in the real economy and financial markets. The statement signals a move toward a comprehensive, unified regulatory framework for digital asset service providers spanning digital asset exchanges, stablecoin issuers, digital asset dealing service providers and digital asset custodian service providers. The Securities and Futures Commission will lead the upcoming licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers, while the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will conduct a legal review to facilitate tokenisation of real-world assets and financial instruments, including settlement, registration and record requirements. On products, the Government plans to regularise tokenised Government bond issuance, incentivise tokenisation of real-world assets, clarify stamp duty treatment for tokenised exchange traded funds, and welcome secondary market trading of tokenised ETFs on licensed digital asset trading platforms or through other channels; it also points to tokenisation across assets such as gold, non-ferrous metals and renewable energy assets. The statement links the stablecoin agenda to real-world use cases, notes the stablecoin issuer licensing regime will be implemented on August 1, welcomes market proposals for how the Government could test use of licensed stablecoins, and says Cyberport will launch a blockchain and digital asset funding scheme. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Securities and Futures Commission will conduct public consultations on the licensing regimes for digital asset dealing service providers and digital asset custodian service providers shortly.

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