Hong Kong defends 'same activity, same risk, same regulation' approach at Davos

Hong Kong Finance Secretary Paul Chan defended the city’s “same activity, same risk, same regulation” framework for digital assets while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to the South China Morning Post. Chan said finance and technology were increasingly intertwined but required a balanced regulatory approach, and added, "Digital assets should serve the real economy.

But we must also build strong guardrails to address risks to financial stability, market integrity and investor protection." He said the principle means digital asset businesses are regulated according to the risks of their activities rather than the technology they use. Chan pointed to existing measures including a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms and a Hong Kong Monetary Authority pilot testing transactions using tokenized deposits and digital assets, according to the SCMP.

He said stablecoin licenses are expected to be issued in the first quarter, and that Hong Kong has issued three batches of tokenized green bonds totaling $2.1 billion since 2023. The coverage also highlights Hong Kong’s broader push into tokenization, citing a Hong Kong-based China Merchants Bank subsidiary that tokenized a $3.8 billion US dollar money market fund on BNB Chain in October and a November 2025 blockchain trade finance pilot involving Banco Inter, Chainlink, the Central Bank of Brazil and the HKMA.

Key Topics

Crypto, Hong Kong, Paul Chan, Hkma, Tokenization, World Economic Forum