Hong Kong’s securities and accounting regulators have expanded their cooperation to include licensed cryptocurrency businesses, bringing financial reporting, audit and compliance matters under a broader joint oversight framework.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC) announced a new memorandum of understanding on Monday. According to Cointelegraph, the agreement applies to SFC-licensed virtual asset service providers as well as several other regulated entities, including licensed corporations, registered open-ended fund companies and authorized funds.
What the agreement covers
The memorandum sets out how the two authorities will cooperate on financial and compliance reporting. It also extends to related audit and assurance work, which involves the independent review of financial information and controls.
The framework provides for several forms of regulatory coordination:
- Sharing information between the SFC and AFRC
- Referring cases to one another
- Providing mutual assistance
- Coordinating inspections and investigations
The agreement replaces a memorandum signed in 2021 between the SFC and the Financial Reporting Council. That body was renamed the AFRC in 2022. The updated arrangement therefore retains the earlier cooperation framework while widening its application to licensed virtual asset businesses and additional activities covered by the SFC.
SFC Chair Kelvin Wong said the expanded cooperation would deliver “more comprehensive oversight” across a broader range of entities and activities in Hong Kong’s financial sector. The regulators did not announce specific enforcement actions alongside the memorandum.
Part of Hong Kong’s digital-asset framework
The new agreement comes as Hong Kong continues to develop rules for the digital-asset industry. In January, regulators outlined plans for rules covering crypto advisory services. The SFC has also introduced frameworks for virtual asset margin financing and perpetual contracts.
Licensed virtual asset service providers are crypto businesses authorized to operate within Hong Kong’s regulatory system. Financial reporting and audit oversight can help regulators examine how such firms report their finances and comply with applicable requirements. The memorandum does not itself create a new crypto product or set out the detailed requirements of those separate frameworks; instead, it establishes how the SFC and AFRC will work together on supervision and related reviews.
By including licensed crypto firms in the cooperation arrangement, the regulators are linking oversight of virtual-asset businesses with the broader reporting and audit infrastructure used across Hong Kong’s financial sector.
Market picture
Moneyiar market data at 22:04 on Sept. 25, 2026, showed mixed performance among the listed digital assets:
- Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL): $0.7739286459, up 3.86% over 24 hours and 16.83% over seven days
- Ethereum Name Service (ENS): $7.0684912163, up 0.09% over 24 hours and 12.69% over seven days
- Compound (COMP): $23.8186759137, down 0.88% over 24 hours but up 13.75% over seven days
- REAL (ASSET): $0.2227338287, down 4.47% over 24 hours and 3.46% over seven days
These market movements are separate from the Hong Kong regulators’ announcement and do not indicate how the new supervisory arrangement will affect individual assets.
