Hong Kong Unveils New Rules To Allow Crypto Margin Financing And Perpetual Contracts
Hong Kong monetary authorities have introduced new guidelines to develop the scope of product choices, permitting the mixing of crypto margin financing and perpetual contracts into the native digital property market.
Hong Kong Approves Crypto Margin Financing, Perps
On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) unveiled a framework for licensed companies that present digital asset dealing companies (VA brokers) to supply digital asset financing.
According to the SFC’s round, the monetary watchdog will allow VA brokers to increase credit score to margin purchasers with sturdy credit score profiles and enough securities collateral, underneath Pillar P of its Access, Safeguards, Products, Infrastructure and Relationships (ASPIRe) roadmap.
This will permit eligible margin purchasers to “improve their participation in VA buying and selling, which may improve the liquidity of Hong Kong’s VA market. At the identical time, this will additionally facilitate the event of VA financing in a risk-controlled setting.”
Under the brand new steering, solely the 2 main cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), will likely be eligible as VA collateral. The regulator additionally released a high-level framework for licensed digital asset buying and selling platforms to supply crypto perpetual contracts to skilled traders.
“Under the ASPIRe roadmap, Pillar P displays the SFC’s dedication to increasing the scope of product choices, together with Perps. This initiative goals to deepen market liquidity, broaden danger administration instruments for traders, and additional strengthen Hong Kong’s place as a number one world digital asset hub,” the watchdog affirmed.
The SFC emphasised that the introduction of Perps will deliver new opportunities to the market, however famous that it additionally carries “a spread of dangers which might be distinct from these related to conventional futures or spot buying and selling of digital property.”
Therefore, the framework requires platform operators to have strong administration measures and clear processes governing valuation, margining, collateralization, and liquidation administration.
Hong Kong Digital Landscape In ‘Defining Stage’
Speaking at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 on Wednesday, Eric Yip, SFC’s Executive Director of Intermediaries, shared his views on the watchdog’s regulatory enhancements for the subsequent section of Hong Kong’s crypto property ecosystem.
Yip affirmed that Hong Kong’s crypto asset growth has entered a “defining stage, formed by the SFC’s ASPIRe roadmap that outlines a future-proof regulatory framework aimed toward deepening market high quality, resilience, and world competitiveness.”
He emphasised this 12 months’s give attention to liquidity, “cultivating market depth, strengthening value discovery, and constructing investor confidence by a strategic mix of expanded entry and accountable product innovation.”
As the chief defined, the SFC is increasing town’s crypto product suite underneath Pillar P whereas sustaining regulatory guardrails aligned with conventional monetary market requirements.
Notably, Yip highlighted the SFC’s greenlight of crypto margin financing, which will likely be anchored to the prevailing securities margin financing framework. He famous that it’s going to present clarification on the usage of crypto property as collateral, “enabling accountable leverage that helps liquidity with out undermining monetary stability.”
In addition, he additionally outlined the brand new high-level framework for leveraged perpetual contracts for skilled traders, which units out a principles-based mannequin.
Discussing how you can bridge innovation and regulatory clarity, he pointed to the upcoming Digital Asset Accelerator to be arrange underneath Pillar Re, which can function a structured communication channel between the regulatory company and trade innovators.
He concluded that “liquidity doesn’t emerge organically; it should be cultivated by openness, sturdy governance, and a purposeful regulatory design. Through focused entry reforms, product growth, and structured innovation assist, Hong Kong is well-positioned to turn out to be a number one world digital property centre the place liquidity thrives on a basis of integrity, resilience, and worldwide cooperation.”
