Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said at Hong Kong FinTech Week on November 2 that a tokenized gold ETF may become its next pilot. Elisa Ng, the SFC's executive director of investment products, gave the figures: 17 tokenized retail products are now approved in Hong Kong, spanning money market funds, gold products and ETFs, with US$1.3 billion in assets under management. Some outlets rendered her name from Chinese as Wu Jiali or Ng Ka-lee.
What She Said
- Gold is a candidate, not an approval. A tokenized gold ETF “may” form the next pilot. No product, issuer or date was named, according to Blockhead's account of the speech.
- An “Innovation Pathway” is coming. It would combine tokenized funds with digital money to improve liquidity and treasury management, and offer flexibility for controlled pilots.
- Secondary trading has started. The first tokenized money market funds were approved for trading on SFC-licensed platforms the week before. TokenPost reports they are two ChinaAMC tokenized money market funds. SFC chief executive Julia Leung's remarks the same day described Hong Kong as the first in the world to allow secondary trading of tokenized money market funds on licensed virtual asset trading platforms.
- Longer term. The SFC will promote tokenized assets as collateral, expand the on-chain scope of stocks and bonds, and explore smart contracts for automating investment decisions and trading.
The Numbers
Leung's remarks put the count at 17 authorized tokenized retail products as of September 2026, with US$1.3 billion in assets, up about 34% from a year earlier according to a law firm's summary of her remarks. She also said investors and institutions should choose tokenized products because they work better and deliver better outcomes, not simply because they are tokenized.
Why Gold, and Why This Angle
Most Hong Kong tokenization headlines lately have been about money: tokenized deposits, stablecoins and central bank rails. Standard Chartered launched a tokenized deposit service for corporate clients in Hong Kong, per PANews citing CoinDesk, and the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP plans to launch on Solana (our report). A tokenized gold ETF would be a different thing: a regulated retail product for a physical commodity, delivered through a regulated fund wrapper. It also fits where the market already is. RWA.xyz showed $5.16 billion of tokenized commodities, mostly gold, on October 23, led by Tether Gold and Paxos Gold (RWA by the Numbers), but those are crypto-native tokens, not authorized retail funds.
What to Watch
- Whether the SFC names a first product under the Innovation Pathway, and whether it is gold.
- Whether secondary trading attracts volume beyond the first two money market funds.
- Whether tokenized funds and digital money connect in practice, including through the HKMA's EnsembleTX, which PANews says reached 24-hour real-value tokenized deposit transactions.
- Blockhead, Nov 6 — Ng speech details; Innovation Pathway
- SFC: Julia Leung panel remarks synopsis — 17 products; first secondary trading of tokenized MMFs on licensed platforms
- Timothy Loh LLP — summary of Leung remarks; 34% year-on-year
- PANews, Nov 3 — speech summary and medium-term plans
- TokenPost — two ChinaAMC tokenized money market funds
- PANews RWA Weekly, Nov 6 — Standard Chartered deposits; HKMA EnsembleTX
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