Hong Kong Monetary Authority to Implement Basel Crypto Asset Capital Rules on January 1, 2026

According to ChainCatcher, citing a report from Caixin, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority 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.

Fei Si, partner at King & Wood Mallesons in Hong Kong and lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, stated in an exclusive interview with Caixin that the new regulations set the highest risk weight for crypto asset exposures using permissionless blockchain technology at 1250%. This means banks must hold capital equal to at least 1:1 of such crypto asset exposures. Such a high regulatory capital requirement will make many banks reluctant to hold these types of crypto assets.