Hong Kong is rapidly developing its digital asset market, attracting investors with its stable regulatory regime and a diversified range of product offerings that include virtual assets and tokenized real-world assets ( RWA ).

Hong Kong and Singapore are the most developed markets for digital assets in Asia, but they differ in focus.

“Singapore has historically had a slightly stronger focus on payments whereas Hong Kong is taking a more product-focused approach,” Kishore Bhindi, financial regulation partner at Linklaters, tells The Asset in an exclusive interview. 

The Hong Kong government is enhancing the licensing scheme to regulate virtual asset trading platforms. Before 2024, the Securities and Futures Commission ( SFC ) had licensed only two platforms for crypto trading: OSL Exchange and HashKey Exchange. Since October 2024, eight more virtual asset trading platforms have obtained SFC licences. The latest are YAX and Bullish, which received approvals in 2025.

“Hong Kong has a stable regulatory regime for tokenized real-world assets. People are confident in the city, and it continues to attract investor interest,” says Bhindi. “However, Hong Kong regulators will treat native digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, much more cautiously due to the retail element involved. Some of the proposals are still at a very early stage.”

Diverse issuers 

Apart from native digital assets, RWAs have also gained the attention of investors. The market has seen a more diverse issuer profile, starting with the Hong Kong government’s first digital green bond offering in 2023, which set a benchmark for the city. Later, issuers expanded from government entities to financial institutions, Chinese state-owned enterprises, and the new economy sector.

In December 2024, Ant Digital Technologies acted as a technology service provider for the issuance of tokenized repackaging notes on a public blockchain. These notes were backed by ESG-focused RWA held by a new energy group and an international manufacturer of solar materials.

This pioneering transaction marked the first ESG-focused RWA tokenized repackaging notes, where the proceeds were used to acquire photovoltaic ( PV ) businesses. It showcases the use of asset tokenization technology in the context of green and sustainable finance.

Also last year, Zhuhai Huafa Group, a property developer based in Guangdong, issued three-year, 4.5% digitally native bonds ( DNBs ) amounting to 1.4 billion yuan ( US$192 million ). This transaction marks the first public offering of DNBs by a Chinese state-owned enterprise. The DNBs were dual-listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ( HKEX ) and Chongwa ( Macao ) Financial Asset Exchange ( MOX ).

“In Hong Kong, many new and innovative RWA deals in the form of bonds, funds and structured products will emerge in 2025 and beyond, but they will primarily be open to professional investors,” says Chin-Chong Liew, capital markets partner at Linklaters. “Retail investor access will remain limited due to the high level of protection on the retail side with stringent requirements on documentation disclosures and suitability assessments.”