The Hong Kong Monetary Authority will implement the Basel capital requirements for crypto assets on January 1, 2026

PANews reported on August 25 that according to Caixin.com, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently issued a circular, confirming that it will fully implement new bank capital regulations based on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's crypto asset regulatory standards in Hong Kong from January 1, 2026.

In an exclusive interview with Caixin, Faith, a Hong Kong partner at King & Wood Mallesons and a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, said that the new regulations set a maximum risk weight of 1250% for crypto asset exposures using permissionless blockchain technology, which means that banks must hold capital for these crypto asset exposures at a ratio of at least 1:1. Such high regulatory capital requirements will make many banks unwilling to hold such crypto assets.