TechFlow, on August 22, according to Caixin News, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) recently issued a circular confirming that new bank capital regulations based on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's crypto asset regulatory standards will be fully implemented in Hong Kong starting January 1, 2026. The regulations cover not only crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum defined by the Basel Committee but also include RWA and stablecoins. Industry insiders pointed out that Ethereum represents typical permissionless blockchain technology, and nearly all major stablecoins as well as an increasing number of RWAs are generally issued on public blockchains. Under the expectation that the new rules will take effect as scheduled, the willingness of Hong Kong's banking system to hold such stablecoins or RWAs will inevitably be affected.
However, both the Basel Committee and the HKMA have clearly stated that the Basel crypto asset regulatory standards generally do not impose credit risk or market risk regulatory capital requirements on crypto assets held by banks on behalf of clients, provided that clients' crypto assets are segregated from the banks' own assets.
