Analysis: Hong Kong Plans to Implement Basel Crypto Asset Capital Rules on January 1, 2026, Potentially Impacting Stablecoins

According to ChainCatcher, citing a report from Caixin, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has recently issued a circular confirming that, starting January 1, 2026, Hong Kong will fully implement new bank capital regulations based on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s crypto-asset regulatory standards. These regulations will cover not only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto-assets as defined by the Basel Committee, but also include RWAs and stablecoins.

Industry insiders point out that Ethereum is a typical example of permissionless blockchain technology, and that almost all mainstream stablecoins and an increasing number of RWAs are generally issued on public blockchains. With the new regulations expected to 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 made it clear that, in general, the Basel crypto-asset regulatory standards will not impose credit or market risk capital requirements on banks for crypto-assets held in custody for clients, provided that clients’ crypto-assets are segregated from the bank’s own assets.