HKMA's new Quantum Preparedness Index gives HK banks a 2.3/10 score as the city's tokenized assets top HK$29B ($3.7B), with full readiness targeted by 2030.
Hong Kong's banking sector is poorly prepared for quantum computing threats, according to a new index published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on July 27. The Quantum Preparedness Index (QPI), the first of its kind for the sector, gave banks an overall score of 2.3 out of 10, with roughly half of the institutions surveyed reporting no formal post-quantum planning at all.
The HKMA released the index alongside a white paper outlining the risks quantum computers pose to financial infrastructure. The regulator said it is targeting a QPI score of 10, representing full sector readiness, by 2030.
Why Quantum Risk Matters for Tokenized Finance
The concern is not abstract. Quantum computers powerful enough to run Shor's algorithm could break RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography, the two systems that currently protect most financial networks. If that happened, attackers could forge the digital signatures used to approve transactions, confirm identities, and maintain trust across payment systems.
That risk carries extra weight in Hong Kong because the city has been moving fast on tokenized finance. By the end of 2025, banks held more than HK$14 billion (approximately $1.8 billion) in digital assets under custody, a figure that had risen about 180% in one year, according to a Feb. 11, 2026, speech by Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Tokenized deposits had reached HK$29 billion by the same date, and the government had issued three batches of tokenized green bonds since 2023, totaling roughly HK$16.8 billion (about $2.1 billion).
The HKMA white paper noted that distributed ledger applications and payment networks rely on cryptography for their basic functions. A breach of those protections would not just expose individual transactions but could destabilize the infrastructure that settlement, custody, and identity verification depend on.
Early Movers and the Path to 2030
One bank surveyed by the HKMA had already completed a proof-of-concept applying post-quantum cryptography to distributed-ledger connectivity. The white paper also pointed to HSBC's 2024 use of quantum-safe technology to move tokenized gold across distributed ledgers as an early real-world example.
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Replacing embedded cryptographic systems takes years, so the HKMA urged banks to start now, beginning with asset inventories, risk assessments, and migration planning. The regulator did not set interim targets but said it would track sector progress through the QPI.
The quantum effort sits inside a broader agenda. The HKMA's Fintech 2030 strategy, launched in 2025, named tokenization as one of four core pillars across more than 40 initiatives. Plans under that strategy include accelerating real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, regularizing tokenized government bond issuance, exploring tokenized Exchange Fund papers, and expanding blockchain settlement using e-HKD, tokenized deposits, and regulated stablecoins.
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