Hong Kong is forging ahead with its ambition to become a global hub for virtual assets, according to Christopher Hui Ching-yu, the city’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, who revealed that the region is exploring gold tokenization and looking to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
Speaking at Consensus Hong Kong 2025, Hui emphasized Hong Kong is committed to “continuously reviewing and refining” its regulatory framework to create a robust ecosystem for the cryptocurrency asset class. Doing so involves developing specific rules for virtual asset exchanges, stablecoin issuers, custodians, and over-the-counter trading desks.
Hong Kong, Hui added, is experimenting with currency tokenization through sandbox initiatives, while also eying gold tokenization. The city’s interest in tokenizing the precious metal is presented as a move to modernize financial instruments by leveraging blockchain’s efficiency and security.
Beyond the precious metal, Hong Kong’s officials are advocating for a deeper integration of digital finance with traditional economic activities, including facilitating cross-border payments through digital platforms. Furthermore, the city is keenly observing the convergence of artificial intelligence with blockchain and Web3 technologies, viewing this fusion as critical for strengthening its future digital infrastructure.
The region has notable been moving to become a regional crypto hub, having recently started accepting cryptocurrency holdings as proof of wealth for investment immigration.
Gold Tokenization Has Been Steadily Growing
Gold tokenization enables fractional ownership and blockchain-based trading of the precious metal, furthering its use as a real-world asset (RWA) on the blockchain.
The amount of gold tokenized on the blockchain has been steadily growing over time, with data from RWA.xyz showing that now over $1.2 billion worth of the precious metal is being traded on a blockchain.
Paxos Gold remains the dominant player in the tokenized gold ecosystem with nearly $600 million worth of PAXG in circulating. It’s followed closely behind by leading stablecoin issuer Tether’s XAUt token, which has $560 million currently in circulation. Other smaller players include Comtech, Aurus, and WisdomTree.
