Industry insiders: Hong Kong Monetary Authority removes the word "private" from the Basel Committee's definition of cryptoassets, expands the scope of supervision

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently issued a circular confirming that the new bank capital base regulations based on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's crypto asset regulatory standards will be fully implemented in Hong Kong from January 1, 2026. The crypto assets are private "digital assets" that mainly rely on cryptography and distributed ledger technology or similar technologies, while "digital assets" are defined as a form of digital value expression that can be used for payment or investment purposes or to obtain goods or services. Bitcoin, Ethereum, RWA, stablecoins, etc. are all classified as cryptoassets in the definition. But Mr. Faith, a law lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, told Caixin in an interview that the HKMA had removed the word "private" from the Basel definition, indicating that crypto assets issued by both the private and public sectors would fall under the scope of Hong Kong's crypto asset regulatory standards.