Extending its investment into digital finance, Hong Kong will issue a third-phase issuance of tokenized green bonds and continue incorporating the distributed ledger technology (DLT) into the government debt strategy.
As per the local reports, the project is the result of two successful issuance rounds of tokenized green bonds in 2023 and 2024. The initiative was announced by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui at the Hong Kong Digital Finance Awards 2025. These bonds were captured and cleared with utilization of DLT, improving transparency in the bond issuance.
Hui claimed that Hong Kong is planning to put tokenized bond issuances as a standard component of its fiscal policy. To promote more uptake, the government is also looking at tax benefits, including waiving stamp duty on disposals of tokenized exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The bond rollout is an important element of the recent Digital Asset Development Policy Declaration 2.0, which includes the outline of the city-wide digital asset strategy of Hong Kong. Front and center to this is the LEAP framework, which is intended to provide legal clarity, ecosystem growth, adoption, and people development.
Within the framework, Hong Kong will implement a licensing framework of stablecoin issuers beginning on August 1 to encourage real-word application of the tokens that follow explicit regulations. Also, rules on licensing of digital asset trading platforms and custodians are being proposed publicly, which is open to consultation until the end of August.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) too have introduced the first-ever digital asset indexes in the city, offering real-time price benchmarks of Bitcoin and Ethereum on an Asian market basis. The goal is to increase participation by institutions in the digital asset platform.
Going on to more heights so far as its crypto infrastructure is concerned, the financial regulators of Hong Kong are in the process of launching trading derivatives of digital assets to professional investors. This is after the recent approvals to spot cryptocurrency ETFs, futures products, and staking services.
Also Read: JD.com and Ant Urge Approval of Yuan-backed Stablecoin in Hong Kong
