1. The structure of funds has completely changed.
Core impact: funds become cleaner and liquidity becomes more stable.
Large traditional funds can finally enter Web3 openly.
Previously, institutions were afraid of 'regulatory uncertainty of stablecoins' and were reluctant to use USDT/USDC for settlement.
Now Hong Kong has granted 'compliant stablecoin licenses', meaning that traditional institutions using stablecoins on-chain will be legalized.
The capital cost on the chain will be lower and the risk smaller.
Reserve assets must be transparent and 100% backed by real assets → credit risk of stablecoins decreases.
This is a significant benefit for DeFi: lending, staking, and LP will become more stable and less likely to hit a landmine.
In one sentence:
Large institutions finally have a reason to enter the market, while the risk of small investors blowing up is reduced.
2. Ecological impact: The 'gray area' of DeFi has been compressed
Hong Kong's new regulations are set in stone—
Stablecoins cannot face anonymous wallets.
This statement patches a major gap in the core logic of Web3:
Anonymous wallets = support decreases; anonymous addresses cannot directly use compliant stablecoins.
Future large DeFi protocols may need to support KYC models.
DeFi will have a 'second-layer structure'
Compliant DeFi: KYC wallets + compliant stablecoins (institutions, banks, traditional funds will play here)
The traffic of future Web3 will show a split:
Those who dare to get rich go to the anonymous zone, those who dare to take long-term funds enter the compliant zone.
This is a generational stratification.
3. Narrative impact: RWA, payment chains, and cross-border settlements will explode
After the normalization of stablecoins, the most direct winners are:
RWA (asset tokenization)
Because all RWA require a 'regulatable on-chain USD/HKD' for settlement.
This means: Hong Kong's new regulations = national endorsement of RWA.
Cross-border payment
Hong Kong is the global settlement center; after the legalization of stablecoins:
Businesses use stablecoins for cross-border settlements → extremely low cost
Banks will launch on-chain payment channels
Web3 companies will directly collect payments globally
This is the 'PayPal moment of on-chain payments.'
New chains will rise
Hong Kong will inevitably support its compliant chain as infrastructure; this will be a new track. (Like Japan's Aster, the path of the Japanese government chain is the same.)
4. Industrial impact: The 'compliance entrepreneurship wave' of Web3 has arrived
The threshold for stablecoin licenses is high (25 million HKD capital), which means:
Small teams have little opportunity, big groups will take off.
The following directions will become new gold mines:
Compliant wallets (supporting real-name, auditing, risk control)
Compliant on-chain payment system
Stablecoin custody services
Stablecoin settlement gateway
Bank-level on-chain settlement system
Compliant DeFi protocols (whitelisted liquidity pools)
In one sentence:
RegTech will become the nuclear weapon for the next wave of entrepreneurship in Web3.
5. Asia needs to establish its own 'stablecoin system'
US stablecoins (USDC/USDT) have long been shrouded in regulatory shadows, while Hong Kong goes the opposite way—setting a framework for stablecoins → providing an alternative for the world.
In the long run, this means three trends:
Asia will have its own on-chain settlement system (no longer completely reliant on USD stablecoins)
Hong Kong may become an international 'on-chain settlement center'
Stablecoins will become the SWIFT of the digital asset era, marking a shift in geopolitical finance.
Final summary: A one-sentence overview of the significance of this new regulation
Hong Kong is not regulating stablecoins; it is reconstructing the currency, compliance, liquidity, and financial infrastructure of future Web3.
It pushes Web3 from 'speculation' to 'the settlement layer of the real economy.'
