Policy to products: Web3 innovation takes centre stage at Consensus Hong Kong

In a makeshift boxing ring, two humanoids square off; one in blue headgear and gloves, the other in matching red. The spectacle might be run-of-the-mill for a robotics conference, but this was Consensus Hong Kong 2026, one of the largest events for the digital assets industry. Behind the human-controlled fighting humanoids was BitRobot, an embodied AI research network built on the Solana blockchain. Despite the bitcoin drawdown of recent weeks, the mood was upbeat. Consensus this year prioritised artificial intelligence and real-world assets (RWA), moving away from the focus on exchange-traded funds and digital asset treasuries that dominated last year’s discussions, according to Gracy Chen, CEO of crypto exchange Bitget. “This is a key platform that brings together Web3 leaders from around the world to discuss and shape the future of the Web3 ecosystem,” Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in his speech at the conference, while emphasising the government’s commitment to “establishing Hong Kong as a global hub for innovation in digital assets.” Lee said the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences was expected to be issued within the next month. Only a small number of licences would be issued in the first batch in March, with more to follow, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told the conference. Chan added that the government aimed to introduce legislation for digital asset dealers and custodian service providers this summer. “We are committed to pro-innovation regulation,” said Chan. Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) CEO Julia Leung Fung-yee announced that the regulator would greenlight virtual asset (VA) margin financing for clients with strong credit profiles, develop a high-level framework for leveraged perpetual contracts for professional investors, and allow exchanges to engage in market-making activities. While last year’s Consensus saw the SFC launch the “A-S-P-I-Re” road map for Hong Kong’s virtual asset market, the regulator’s announcements this year focused on the “products” pillar of the road map, according to Eric Yip Chee-hang, the SFC’s executive director heading the intermediaries division. He also announced the Digital Asset Accelerator under the “relationships” pillar, which serves as a communication channel between the SFC and industry participants through an agent. The digital asset community reacted with excitement to the news. “Fantastic,” said James Aitchison, founder of crypto hedge fund Caerus Global Management, “I cannot underscore how much of a big move this is for Hong Kong.” “We welcome the clarity that that will bring,” said Myles Harrison, chief product officer at Switzerland-based digital asset bank AMINA Bank. Harrison observed that while last year’s event was characterised by a wait for market clarity, the current environment at Consensus reflected a shift from experimental pilots towards a new phase of practical implementation. According to Richard Teng, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, another trend this year was the convergence between traditional finance and decentralised finance. During his talk, Teng highlighted the substantial cost savings of handling cross-border payments on-chain, alongside the rapid rise of RWA tokenisation. “Things that are much more liquid will get tokenised first,” Teng said. Chen of Bitget said Wall Street “right now is the main pricing power of bitcoin and cryptocurrency.” Financial Secretary Chan noted the emergence of a “machine economy,” where AI agents can engage in digital asset transactions with each other on-chain. “TRON will become the home of AI and AI agents,” said Justin Sun, founder of blockchain company TRON, who spent US$6.2 million on a banana taped to a wall, in one of his presentation slides to a jam-packed audience. “Crypto is the currency for AI,” added Teng.