Hong Kong is considering approving new cryptocurrency and virtual asset products, including derivatives and margin lending for certain investors, according to the city’s financial regulator.
Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) Chief Executive Julia Leung said the plans were under review as Hong Kong seeks to establish itself as a regional digital assets hub and broaden its services to investors.
“We are considering derivative products for professional investors, margin lending for certain customers,”
Leung told Coindesk’s Consensus Hong Kong 2025 conference, referring to digital assets, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong’s financial secretary Paul Chan said on February 19 that the city’s regulators have issued nine digital asset trading platform licences, while Leung noted that eight more applications are under review.
The government is also working to advance regulations on stablecoins, Chan added.
Hong Kong first outlined its ambition to become a virtual asset hub in 2022, following Beijing’s sweeping ban on all crypto transactions in mainland China the previous year.
Since then, it has launched Asia’s first spot crypto exchange-traded funds and introduced other initiatives.
Singapore and Dubai are also vying to become global centres for virtual assets.
The price of bitcoin more than doubled last year, reaching an all-time high of $109,071 on 20 January this year, the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
However, it has since pulled back to around US$96,000.
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