EX.IO Welcomes the Latest Policy Address and Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan, Aiming to Empower Industries Across the Economy with Digital Assets

(Hong Kong, 16 September 2026) EX.IO, a licensed virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong, welcomes and fully supports the digital-asset initiatives set out in the Chief Executive’s latest Policy Address and Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan, delivered today. The platform notes that the Government is upholding the principle of “same activity, same risks, same rules” in building a world-leading licensing and regulatory regime for digital assets, and has put forward concrete, forward-looking measures across stablecoins, tokenised products, digital bonds and central bank digital currency. The direction is right, the thinking is clear and the pace is firm — further evidence that Hong Kong’s approach of “regulation for development” is working, and a strong vote of confidence in the healthy, all-round growth of the compliant industry.

In fact, EX.IO’s trajectory over the past year and more is the clearest proof that this policy framework is being delivered on the ground. In December 2024, the platform was among the first to obtain a Virtual Asset Trading Platform licence from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under the “deemed-to-be-licensed” regime. In January this year, it received SFC approval to conduct off-platform virtual asset OTC trading. In June, it was further approved to distribute tokenised and non-tokenised traditional investment products, and to provide independent custody services for clients — Hong Kong’s first genuinely compliant custody permission in the strict sense, ahead of the formal rollout of a dedicated virtual asset custody licence. On the product side, the platform has been offering and distributing tokenised products since late last year and now offers more than 30 tokenised products, with underlying assets spanning gold, silver, equities, bonds and more. Each milestone shows that, under a clear licensing regime and a defined compliance path, licensed platforms are fully capable of turning the Government’s policy blueprint into products and services that investors can actually use.

What is more noteworthy is that EX.IO is converting the innovative energy of digital assets into concrete outcomes that serve the real economy — in step with multiple objectives of the Five-Year Plan.

First, in reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as an international financial centre, the platform has offered more than 30 tokenised products covering equities and funds, bonds, gold and silver, connecting the securities, bond, and asset and wealth management markets. Last month, sales of the platform’s tokenised products rose 200% year on year, while trading volume grew 800%. EX.IO recently entered into a strategic partnership with RWA platform Arco, using Korea as the first stop to take Hong Kong’s compliant tokenised assets overseas and attract global capital and enterprises to Hong Kong through open financial infrastructure.

Second, in consolidating Hong Kong’s status as a cross-border wealth management hub, the platform leverages independent custody, OTC trading and wealth-management capabilities to provide global institutional investors and family offices with a compliant, secure, one-stop channel for asset allocation. Professional investors currently account for around 70% of the platform’s clients.

At the same time, in building a commodities trading ecosystem, EX.IO earlier this year became the first in Hong Kong to distribute and distribute selected gold tokenised products — a first-mover initiative in innovative financial product distribution, using gold as the entry point, and a timely response to the Government’s push for coordinated development of gold trading and clearing infrastructure.

In advancing “finance +” services for the real economy, the platform has recently offered innovative products such as tokenised fixed-income notes, and continues to deepen cooperation with brokers, banks and enterprises holding high-quality real-world assets. It is strengthening distribution and secondary circulation mechanisms after tokenised products are offered, helping real-economy enterprises tap new on-chain financing channels and directing capital more efficiently toward technological innovation and the real economy.

For these reasons, EX.IO is particularly encouraged by the new measures in the Policy Address, including refining the virtual asset licensing regime and regulatory guidance; facilitating the trading of regulated stablecoins on licensed platforms and their use in settling tokenised money market funds; promoting the issuance and trading of tokenised products such as gold on licensed platforms; and the regular issuance of digital bonds. These directions are highly aligned with EX.IO’s existing strategy. The platform is ready to respond promptly and in full, including continuing to screen and offer more high-quality tokenised products, and studying participation in new use cases such as regulated stablecoin trading and settlement of tokenised funds, so as to support the swift implementation of each policy.

A spokesperson for EX.IO said:
“The latest Policy Address and Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan once again demonstrate that the HKSAR Government’s direction on digital assets is right, its policies are consistent, and its execution is pragmatic. As the first licensed virtual asset trading platform with a brokerage background, and the only virtual asset trading platform included in the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) system, EX.IO is both a beneficiary of Hong Kong policy and a firm supporter and active implementer. Our experience of obtaining multiple business approvals over the past year shows that, by putting safety and prudence first, Hong Kong’s compliant industry can both contain risk and unlock innovation. Going forward, EX.IO will continue to keep pace with the Government and regulators, actively support and respond to every new measure, and work with the industry — through compliant, secure and transparent institutional-grade services — to build Hong Kong into a leading global digital asset hub, so that digital assets become an even more important engine for serving the real economy and strengthening Hong Kong’s financial markets.”

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EX.IO’s official Website: www.ex.io

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