The Hong Kong banking sector is going to be bewildered by the new regulations on crypto assets! 😂 The Monetary Authority has announced that starting from January 2026, the Basel capital requirements will be implemented. In simple terms: banks will have to provide a "deposit" of 1:1 for holding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum—holding 1 unit of currency requires a capital of 1 unit. This 1250% risk weight is essentially a "sky-high insurance" for speculative behavior!

The harshest part is that this new regulation doesn't spare RWA and stablecoins either. Assets issued on public blockchains like Ethereum are classified as "high-risk groups" since permissionless blockchains cannot control risks. Do banks want to hold mainstream stablecoins like USDT and USDC? They better check if there’s enough capital in their wallets first. Systemically important banks are worse off; they cannot hold more than 2% of these types of assets of their Tier 1 capital, and anything exceeding that will be calculated at a high-risk rate.

But don’t rush to cry, the custody business has secretly opened a "backdoor"! As long as customers’ crypto assets are placed in an "isolated safe" and not mixed with the bank's own assets, they won't have to pay this unjust fee. This move clearly encourages banks to act as "security guards" instead of "speculators"—they can safeguard assets, but if they want to trade themselves, they better prepare their own capital first!

Even more astonishing is that Hong Kong has included tokenized bonds issued by the government into the regulations, removing the term "private" from the Basel definition. Now, regardless of public or private assets, as long as they are related to crypto, they must comply with the rules. Industry insiders are guessing: in the future, banks might steer clear of stablecoins and RWAs on Ethereum and instead target permissioned chain assets, after all, no one wants to be the "fool who enjoys holding coins temporarily, only to see their capital go to the graveyard"!

To summarize: Starting in 2026, crypto assets will be categorized into different tiers, public chain assets will become "hot potatoes", and custody services will become a "safe zone". Banks will likely have to revise their business manuals overnight—refusing high-risk coins with one hand while tightly embracing compliant custody with the other. After all, the new rules clearly state: "Want to make money from crypto? First, learn how to safely fish!" 🚀🔒