Hong Kong's first batch of compliant stablecoin licenses delayed implementation. The HKMA: Fully pushing forward.

Golden Finance reports that on April 1, after the Hong Kong “Stablecoin Ordinance” takes effect on August 1, 2025, the first batch of issuer license approvals were originally planned to be issued in March 2026, but they did not materialize as scheduled. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority told Caixin that the HKMA is pushing forward with the licensing process with full effort and will make timely announcements to the public.

At the beginning of February, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue, had said that it will strive to issue Hong Kong’s first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in March 2026. At that time, the HKMA was assessing applications for stablecoin licenses and collecting additional application materials needed from applicants.

In the 2026/27 Budget unveiled on February 25, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan Mo-po, explicitly stated that the first batch of compliant stablecoin issuer licenses in Hong Kong will be issued in March. At the same time, the Hong Kong government and financial regulators will continue to promote licensed issuers, so that—under compliance and risk being controllable—they can explore more application scenarios.