In a keynote at Hong Kong FinTech Week on 2 November 2026, Elisa Ng, the SFC's Executive Director of Investment Products, said the SFC is introducing an "innovation pathway" that draws on its existing powers. Where tokenised products deliver meaningful benefits and give Hong Kong a first-mover advantage, the SFC will consider regulatory flexibility and guidance to support controlled pilots and product launches. Ms Ng said tokenised gold ETFs may form the next pilot of secondary trading on SFC-licensed platforms. The speech gives no criteria, application process or dates.
Why it matters: The SFC is being proactive in balancing innovation with safeguards: tokenisation's business cases will take more than technology, and by inviting firms to experiment with it early, the regulator gets the right checks and balances in place as real traffic scales on the building blocks Hong Kong has built. R.M.
For Ethereum: A tokenised gold ETF pilot could bring Hang Seng's gold ETF class, issued on Ethereum, to round-the-clock retail trading, while the SFC's interest in e-CNY points its treasury use towards permissioned rails.
Elisa Ng, Executive Director of Investment Products at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), gave the keynote “From Tracks to Traffic: Scaling Tokenisation in Hong Kong’s Capital Markets” at Hong Kong FinTech Week on 2 November 2026 (SFC release 26PR183). The SFC publishes it as the text as drafted, which “may differ from the delivered version” (page 1).
Innovation pathway. The SFC is “introducing an ‘innovation pathway’ that draws on our existing powers”. The speech says: “Where the innovative features of tokenised products deliver meaningful benefits and give Hong Kong a first-mover advantage, the SFC will duly consider providing regulatory flexibility and guidance to support controlled pilots and the timely launch of products.” The SFC will use the experience to refine the framework. The pathway “can be extended to product innovation beyond tokenisation” (page 3).
Secondary trading. The SFC will monitor the first tokenised money market funds approved for trading on SFC-licensed platforms and “consider how to extend the model progressively. Tokenised gold ETFs may form the next pilot” (page 2).
Treasury management. Ms Ng named connecting tokenised money market funds (MMFs) with digital money as the second near-term use, and said the SFC “can explore how e-CNY might interact with the tokenised fund ecosystem”, for example through renminbi (RMB)-denominated tokenised MMFs, “subject to applicable regulatory and cross-border arrangements” (page 2).
Figures. The SFC has authorised 17 tokenised retail products since 2023, across MMFs, gold products and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with US$1.3 billion in assets under management (page 1).
Where the innovative features of tokenised products deliver meaningful benefits and give Hong Kong a first-mover advantage, the SFC will duly consider providing regulatory flexibility and guidance to support controlled pilots and the timely launch of products.
The medium-term directions in the speech are tokenised collateral, more underlying assets onchain, and smart contracts automating investment workflows (page 3). The speech names no product, issuer or platform for the next pilot.
Implications
Ms Ng framed the change as moving “from pilots to commercialisation” and asked firms to “engage with us early”, to help shape the guardrails, and to move asset managers, custodians, fund administrators and banks onto “an on-chain workflow” (pages 3 to 4). Under the SFC’s April 2026 circular, an existing authorised fund already needs the SFC’s prior consultation and approval, case by case, before adding secondary trading (Regulatory Wire). The speech does not say how the pathway differs from that process, what “regulatory flexibility” can cover, or whether it will be set out in a circular.
The pathway lets products launch ahead of the rules that will govern them. The SFC says it will “learn from practical experience to inform further refinements to the regulatory framework” and that the pathway can extend to product innovation beyond tokenisation (page 3), so a provider can bring a product to the SFC before a circular covers it. This rests on inference until the SFC publishes criteria. A circular or FAQ on the pathway, and the first product launched under it, would show how far the flexibility goes.
For Ethereum
Hang Seng’s tokenised gold ETF class is issued on Ethereum (pilot entry) and is the tokenised gold ETF on the site’s record. If it is the product chosen, a gold ETF pilot would bring a token issued on Ethereum to round-the-clock retail trading on a licensed platform. The speech names no product, so this rests on inference.
The speech’s other near-term use points elsewhere. It pairs tokenised MMFs with digital money and says the SFC “can explore how e-CNY might interact with the tokenised fund ecosystem” (page 2). e-CNY does not run on a public chain, so RMB treasury flows built on it would favour permissioned rails, though the SFC makes this “subject to applicable regulatory and cross-border arrangements”. The SFC’s approval of a tokenised gold ETF for trading, naming the product and chain, would settle the first point, and any e-CNY arrangement the second.
Elsewhere in Asia
The State of Play on tokenised securities and funds compares the three markets. India’s tokenised corporate bonds run as the Demat 2.0 pilot in the sandbox of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), with secondary trading planned for a later phase. Singapore tests tokenised funds and bonds with industry under Project Guardian, and its live tokenised funds are sold to accredited and institutional investors.
What to watch
An SFC circular or FAQ setting out the innovation pathway; the first tokenised gold ETF approved for secondary trading; and the virtual asset dealing, custody, advisory and management bill, which Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, said on 2 November 2026 the government will introduce to the Legislative Council (remarks, para 9).