On February 12, 2026, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) released its annual statistics for 2025. The figures point to another strong year for HKIAC and underscore Hong Kong’s continued strength as a leading hub for complex, cross-border arbitrations.
HKIAC registered 582 new cases in 2025, comprising 388 arbitration filings, nine mediations, and 185 domain name disputes. Of note:
The 2025 caseload also reflected an evolving and diversified dispute profile. Corporate and shareholder disputes accounted for 23.6% of cases, followed by maritime disputes at 19.9%, and sale of goods cases at 14.2%. Notably, cryptocurrency and blockchain disputes rose to 7.2% of the caseload, more than doubling from 3.1% in 2024, highlighting HKIAC’s increasing engagement with emerging sectors.
HKIAC’s arbitration work in 2025 remained highly international. Parties from 61 jurisdictions participated in arbitrations, with the most common party origins being Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the British Virgin Islands. The vast majority of proceedings were international in nature: 84.3% of all arbitrations and 92.9% of administered arbitrations involved at least one party from outside Hong Kong. In addition, 45.4% of arbitrations involved no Hong Kong parties, 58.2% involved no Mainland Chinese parties, and 13.7% involved no Asian parties, which is broadly in line with the 2024 statistics.
HKIAC’s 2025 appointment data reflects continued breadth and diversity in arbitrator selection. During the year, HKIAC made 176 direct appointments. Female arbitrators accounted for 36.4% of those appointments, maintaining the strong gender representation seen in recent years. Notably, 20.5% of those appointments had not received an HKIAC appointment in the preceding three years, reflecting continued efforts to broaden HKIAC’s arbitrator pool. Challenges to arbitrators remained rare. Only four challenges were submitted in 2025, and all were rejected.
In 2025, 96.6% of all arbitrations commenced at HKIAC were seated in Hong Kong, underscoring the continued preference for Hong Kong as the seat of choice. This trend reflects, in part, the practical advantage conferred by the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-Ordered Interim Measures (the “Arrangement”), which uniquely permits parties in Hong Kong-seated institutional arbitrations to seek court-ordered preservation directly from Mainland Chinese courts—relief that is not available to parties in arbitrations seated elsewhere. Parties made strong use of the Arrangement in 2025:
Notably, more than half of the applications in 2025 concerned assets or evidence owned by non-Mainland China parties. Since the Arrangement took effect on October 1, 2019, HKIAC has processed 178 applications and is aware of 133 Mainland Chinese court decisions, with 126 grants subject to the applicant’s provision of security, preserving assets totaling RMB 30.8 billion (approximately US$4.6 billion). These figures reinforce the Arrangement’s continued practical utility and its role in strengthening Hong Kong’s position as a leading arbitral seat for disputes involving Mainland China related assets or evidence.
HKIAC’s 2025 data also reflects continued use of alternative dispute funding and fee arrangements. One disclosure of third-party funding was made in 2025 in an arbitration commenced under the 2024 HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules. Adoption of outcome-related fee structure agreements (ORFSAs)—permitted under Hong Kong’s regime introduced in December 2022—continued to grow. Parties disclosed ORFSAs in seven instances in 2025, up from six in 2024 and three in 2023. All seven disclosures were made in arbitrations administered by HKIAC. Notably, six of the seven agreements were entered into after the commencement of arbitration, indicating increasing flexibility in how parties structure fee arrangements as proceedings evolve.
Overall, HKIAC’s 2025 statistics reflect a larger arbitration caseload, higher aggregate dispute value, and a distinctly international profile. The growing prominence of maritime and digital asset disputes, continued reliance on Mainland China’s Interim Measures, and the increasing uptake of ORFSAs collectively underscore both sectoral evolution and the enduring strategic advantages of Hong Kong-seated arbitration. Together, these trends reinforce Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a forum for complex and high-value disputes and will be important to monitor in the years ahead.
For more information, please see HKIAC’s 2025 statistics.