From Strategy to Implementation: How is Hong Kong, China, Positioning Stablecoins, Tokenization, and Web3?

Compiled & Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

On September 16, Hong Kong, China, successively released the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026—2030) and the Chief Executive's 2026 Policy Address, jointly outlining Hong Kong's development direction in the coming years.

The former focuses on medium- and long-term strategies, clarifying Hong Kong's development goals by 2030; the latter emphasizes policy implementation, further translating the directions in the Five-Year Plan into regulatory systems, infrastructure, pilot projects, and timelines.

From the perspectives of stablecoins, tokenization, Web3, blockchain, and virtual assets, the two documents form a clear衔接 relationship: the Five-Year Plan proposes building a regulated digital asset market, while the Policy Address further answers how Hong Kong plans to issue licenses, conduct transactions, settle payments, manage custody, and control risks.

What Do the Five-Year Plan and Policy Address Cover?

The first Five-Year Plan of Hong Kong, China, is divided into seven parts and 28 chapters. Centered on consolidating Hong Kong's unique advantages, the plan focuses on strengthening the four major centers of international finance, shipping, trade, and aviation; building an international innovation and technology center and a highland for gathering international high-end talents; accelerating the construction of the Northern Metropolis; deepening cooperation with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the mainland; expanding the Belt and Road Initiative and international cooperation networks; improving people's livelihoods in areas such as education, medical care, housing, and elderly care; and enhancing safety governance and public governance capabilities.

In terms of economic development, the plan specifically emphasizes consolidating Hong Kong's status as an international financial center, a global offshore renminbi business hub, and an international asset and wealth management center, and lists digital finance as a high-end financial service that Hong Kong should actively develop.

The 2026 Policy Address is more specific. It focuses on formulating and implementing Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan, safeguarding national security, strengthening the "four major centers" and talent highland, leveraging international advantages, accelerating the construction of the Northern Metropolis, integrating into the national development大局, improving people's livelihoods, and coordinating development and security. Compared with the Five-Year Plan, the Policy Address adds specific responsible agencies, regulatory arrangements, implementation projects, and target years, serving as an annualized and project-based implementation of the Five-Year Plan.

Stablecoins: From "Prudent Development" to Licensed Trading and Actual Settlement

The Five-Year Plan includes stablecoins in the category of "emerging digital assets" on page 27, alongside central bank digital currencies, tokenized deposits, tokenized bonds, and tokenized securities products, and proposes to "prudently promote" the development of these assets. This indicates that stablecoins have entered Hong Kong's medium- and long-term financial development framework.

The Policy Address clearly takes a step forward. Paragraph 49 of the report proposes promoting regulated stablecoins to be traded on licensed virtual asset trading platforms and used for settling tokenized money market funds. This statement contains at least three policy implications:

First, the development of stablecoins is premised on being "regulated," which does not mean allowing all types of stablecoins to enter the Hong Kong market unconditionally.

Second, the trading venues for stablecoins will be linked to licensed virtual asset trading platforms, meaning stablecoins will be integrated into the existing market regulatory system.

Third, the use of stablecoins is not limited to virtual asset trading but will extend to the settlement of traditional financial products such as tokenized funds, becoming a tool connecting the digital asset market and the traditional financial market.

Therefore, the focus of Hong Kong's stablecoin policy is not to develop pure cryptocurrency payments, but to explore the settlement value of regulated stablecoins in funds, securities, and other tokenized financial products.

Tokenization: The Most Specific Digital Asset Main Line in the Two Reports

Compared with the relatively broad concept of "Web3," tokenization is the direction with the richest content and highest implementation level in the two documents.

The Five-Year Plan lists financial tokenization as one of the four key areas of fintech, and proposes to promote the practical application of tokenization technology in different asset classes and scenarios through the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Project Ensemble. The plan also proposes to promote the regular issuance of government digital bonds and improve relevant legal and market supporting facilities.

The Policy Address further lists several specific projects.

1. Digital Bonds. The report points out that from 2025 to the first half of 2026, digital bonds issued by Hong Kong accounted for about half of the global issuance scale. The government plans to issue digital bonds regularly, explore settlement using different digital currencies, and extend their application to the entire life cycle of bonds such as interest distribution and redemption.

2. Tokenization of Exchange Fund Bills. The HKMA plans to pilot the tokenization of Exchange Fund Bills, allowing banks to use Exchange Fund Bills with a scale of over HK$1.3 trillion around the clock to improve asset-liability management efficiency.

3. Improving Market Infrastructure. The HKMA's "Tokenized Bond Expert Group" will continue to study innovative solutions and review the relevant legal framework to promote the application of distributed ledger technology in the capital market. MU OmniClear will also build a digital asset platform to provide one-stop services for digital bond issuance and settlement.

4. Tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs). The Policy Address clearly proposes to improve the regulatory framework for tokenized investment products and promote the issuance and trading of gold and other suitable real-world assets on licensed platforms. This means that Hong Kong's tokenization policy has expanded from bonds to assets such as gold, commodity warehouse receipts, and carbon credits.

5. Tokenized Warehouse Receipts and Trade Finance. HKEX plans to launch a tokenized warehouse receipt financing pilot, allowing enterprises to obtain financing using commodity inventory; at the same time, it will build a blockchain-supported multi-asset tokenization platform, including carbon credits and commodity warehouse receipts from London Metal Exchange (LME)-approved warehouses in the pilot.

6. Application of Tokenized Deposits. The HKMA will complete the CBDC settlement and 24/7 operation arrangements for EnsembleTX around the end of this year and explore more applications of tokenized deposits.

Overall, Hong Kong hopes to advance tokenization from concept demonstration to a complete financial process including issuance, trading, mortgage, financing, settlement, interest distribution, and redemption.

Web3 and Blockchain: Emphasizing Industry Cultivation, More Emphasizing Practical Applications

The Five-Year Plan does not directly mention the term "Web3," but lists blockchain and fintech as one of the key digital technology directions for Cyberport's development. This indicates that blockchain is regarded as part of Hong Kong's innovative technology and financial infrastructure, rather than a separate policy sector.

The Policy Address explicitly mentions Web3. The report states that Hong Kong has nurtured about 20 unicorn enterprises covering emerging industries such as fintech, artificial intelligence, logistics innovation, Web3 and blockchain, biotech, and smart manufacturing; Cyberport will continue to focus on artificial intelligence, data science, blockchain, cybersecurity, and fintech, supporting enterprise financing, going global, and talent training.

However, from the perspective of specific policies, Hong Kong's emphasis on blockchain is mainly focused on applications that can serve the real economy and traditional finance, including:

• Using distributed ledger technology to issue and settle digital bonds;
• HKEX is building a blockchain-supported multi-asset tokenization platform, which has included carbon credits listed on Core Climate2 and will include commodity warehouse receipts from LME-approved warehouses in the pilot next year to facilitate flexible collateral allocation and cross-collateralization in the market;
• HKEX strives to launch a tokenized warehouse receipt financing pilot project in conjunction with designated banks by 2027, using physical tracking technology to support enterprises in obtaining working capital with commodity inventory as collateral;
• The Port Community System (PCS) supports trade finance with trusted logistics data and will further rely on blockchain technology to carry out offshore trade cargo tracking and expand the system's coverage;
• The HKMA will explore more application scenarios for tokenized deposits, including cooperating with the mainland to study trade finance application cases and completing pilot transactions by the end of the year.

Virtual Assets: Improving Licensing System, While Strengthening Custody and Anti-Money Laundering

The Five-Year Plan does not directly use the term "virtual assets" but uses "digital assets" as the main policy expression. The plan proposes to build a world-leading digital asset licensing and regulatory system in accordance with the principle of "same business, same risk, same rules," while promoting market liquidity and product innovation.

The Policy Address directly uses "digital assets" and "virtual assets" and proposes a relatively complete implementation arrangement.

First, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will improve the virtual asset licensing system, formulate specific regulatory guidelines, and clarify compliance paths for virtual asset service providers.

Second, tokenized products and stablecoins will be issued, traded, or settled on licensed platforms. It can be seen that licensed platforms will become important market infrastructure for Hong Kong to connect virtual assets, stablecoins, and traditional financial products.

Third, regulation will extend from licensing to custody, transaction monitoring, and anti-money laundering. The SFC will operate a digital asset custody monitoring system and plans to launch Project CrypTech in 2027 to conduct market monitoring and anti-money laundering monitoring through big data.

The implementation list of the Policy Address also proposes that the Hong Kong Customs plans to launch the "Digital Asset Transaction Analysis System" and "Customs Anti-Money Laundering Intelligent Analysis System" in 2029 to collect and analyze virtual asset and financial intelligence; by 2030, it will integrate these systems with remittance, currency exchange, cash declaration, and precious metal trading systems.

These arrangements show that Hong Kong is ready to establish a regulatory chain covering licensing, platform trading, asset custody, market monitoring, anti-money laundering, and cross-border fund analysis.

Digital Currency and Cross-Border Finance

The Five-Year Plan proposes to prudently promote central bank digital currencies and expand the application of digital renminbi and cross-border renminbi settlement in the Qianhai cooperation.

The Policy Address further proposes to introduce wholesale central bank digital currency (e-HKD) payment solutions in post-close trading of derivatives, with real transactions as the test target within this year. At the same time, EnsembleTX will improve CBDC settlement and 24/7 operation arrangements.

Summary

Combining the two documents, Hong Kong's digital asset roadmap can be summarized as: taking regulation as the premise, tokenization as the main line, licensed platforms as the entry point, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies as settlement tools, and controlling risks through market monitoring and anti-money laundering systems.

The Five-Year Plan is responsible for establishing directions, proposing the development of digital finance, digital assets, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and financial tokenization; the Policy Address translates these directions into specific projects such as digital bonds, tokenized deposits, tokenized funds, gold and commodity warehouse receipt tokenization, licensed platform trading, CBDC settlement, and digital asset monitoring systems.

It can be seen that what Hong Kong is promoting is not a Web3 centered on anonymous transactions, permissionless finance, or speculative tokens, but a digital asset system deeply integrated with the traditional financial market, serving real assets and the real economy, and capable of being regulated and audited. Whether Hong Kong can truly become an international digital asset hub in the future will depend on the application scale of stablecoins, the liquidity of tokenized assets, and whether a balance can be maintained between regulatory requirements and market innovation.

Hong Kong, China's Chief Executive's 2026 Policy Address: https://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/2026/public/pdf/policy/policy-full_tc.pdf

First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026—2030): https://www.hk5yplan.gov.hk/2026-2030/public/pdf/plan/FullText_tc.pdf