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Hong Kong to Award First Stablecoin Licenses in March, Expand to Dealers & Custodians

Hong Kong confirms first stablecoin licenses will be awarded in March 2026. Financial Secretary Paul Chan announces legislation for dealers and custodian service providers to broaden regulatory framework beyond existing rules for trading platforms. The city is racing to compete with Singapore and Dubai for regional crypto infrastructure business.

High impact🇭🇰 Hong KongStablecoinLicensingCustodyUSDTUSDC

APAC FINSTAB analysis

For APAC operators, this creates a high-impact signal around stablecoin, licensing, custody in Hong Kong. Protocols/assets in scope: USDT, USDC. Teams should monitor the original source, map the change to licensing, custody, disclosure, and market-access obligations, and update their jurisdiction playbooks before the next compliance review.

Compliance read-through: map this event to entity licensing, market-access, custody, disclosure, token listing, and operational-risk obligations before expanding or marketing in the affected jurisdiction.

View related Stablecoin tracker page →

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Invesco Files Tokenized Stablecoin Reserve Fund With SEC

Invesco filed to add the Invesco Stablecoin Reserves Onchain Fund to its Short-Term Investments Trust, with onchain shares intended to qualify as stablecoin reserve assets under the GENIUS Act framework. The filing shows large asset managers building regulated tokenized Treasury infrastructure for payment-stablecoin issuers.

High impact🇺🇸 United StatesStablecoinTokenizationRegulation
APAC FINSTAB analysis → Original source ↗