Hong Kong and Singapore are answering the same question about stablecoins differently: who keeps the income earned on the assets backing them, and how far does that rule reach once a platform or distributor is involved.
Under Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance, in force since 1 August 2025, licensed issuers are barred from paying interest or interest-like incentives to holders of specified stablecoins. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) supervisory guideline goes further on mechanics: income or loss from managing the reserve assets is attributed to the licensed issuer first. Emily Rumble, of counsel at Gibson Dunn in Hong Kong, said this fixes the order rather than forbidding revenue-sharing outright — reserve income “must first be paid into the issuer’s general income, and only after that point could be shared with distributors.” Crucially, the duty is not limited to the issuer: licensees must also ensure their third-party distributors do not pay interest to holders. Rumble noted the regime “stops short of capturing rewards paid out by firms unaffiliated with issuers” — so the protection reaches distributors tied to a licensed issuer, but not independent platforms paying their own rewards.
Singapore has not yet settled this. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published draft amendments to the Payment Services Act on 1 September 2026 that would put a single-currency stablecoin framework on statutory footing, with a proposed ban on issuers paying interest, returns or any other benefit solely for holding the coin. But MAS has indicated the ban is not intended to disturb revenue-sharing or distribution arrangements between an issuer and third parties — leaving open, for now, whether a distributor could recreate yield-like economics outside the issuer-holder relationship. Public comments on the consultation (P015-2026) close 16 October 2026.
Readers holding, or considering holding, stablecoins through a Hong Kong- or Singapore-licensed platform are the ones this directly affects: it determines whether a platform paying them a “reward” on their stablecoin balance is operating inside or outside the regulator’s no-interest rule.
Hong Kong has also already licensed its first issuers — HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial (a joint venture of Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands) — on 10 April 2026, with Anchorpoint’s HKDAP stablecoin in controlled beta for institutional and professional users since August 2026 and retail access expected around year-end. Hong Kong additionally restricts reserve assets to bank deposits of three months or less, or debt securities maturing within a year, in the stablecoin’s reference currency. Singapore’s own reserve rules remain open: MAS’s proposal would require reserves equal to at least 100% of outstanding stablecoins in segregated accounts, but has not yet decided whether a minimum portion must sit in cash or bank deposits, and has not announced a timeline for that follow-on consultation.
Singapore’s consultation closes 16 October 2026; MAS’s response and the subsidiary legislation that will fix the reserve-composition rules are still to come, with no timeline announced.
References
Regulation Asia – Regulating Stablecoin Yields: Hong Kong and Singapore Approaches
