Hong Kong on Friday granted the primary two stablecoin issuance licenses to Anchorpoint Monetary, a Normal Chartered-led consortium that features HSBC and the Animoca model.
The approval by the Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA), the central financial institution for the Hong Kong area, marks the primary batch underneath the Stablecoin Ordinance, which got here into impact in August 2025.
“We sit up for the issuer beginning operations in keeping with plan and exploring development alternatives whereas appropriately managing dangers,” HKMA CEO Eddie Yue stated in an announcement on Friday.
“We hope that the promotion of regulated stablecoins will resolve issues in monetary and financial actions, create worth for each people and companies, and assist the wholesome growth of digital belongings in Hong Kong.”
The HKMA had reviewed 36 functions and suggested that the primary spherical could be restricted. Treasurer Paul Chan stated in February’s funds speech that the regulator would prioritize threat administration, reserve high quality and anti-money laundering controls, and that solely a “small quantity” could be authorized.
The choice to license note-issuing banks within the metropolis first seems to be intentional. HSBC and Normal Chartered are two of solely three industrial banks approved to print Hong Kong greenback banknotes. The system dates again to 1846, when personal banks started issuing foreign money backed by silver deposits within the absence of a colonial central financial institution.
At present, every banknote-issuing financial institution deposits US {dollars} within the authorities’s change fund at a set rate of interest of HK$7.80 per greenback, receives debt certificates in return, and prints banknotes on that foundation.
Yue drew one thing related in a December 2023 weblog submit.
Paper cash issued by industrial banks earlier than 1935 in change for deposited silver was a type of “personal cash,” and stablecoins operate as blockchain-based equivalents, tokens with secure worth that act as an on-chain medium of change, Yue wrote.
strict identification regime
This license comes with one of many world’s strictest KYC frameworks for digital cash.
Underneath the HKMA’s AML tips, licensed stablecoins can solely be transferred to wallets the place the proprietor has been recognized. This journey rule applies to transfers over HK$8,000 (~$1,000).
In observe, which means that Hong Kong greenback stablecoins are prone to embed compliance checks of their sensible contracts to limit transfers to on-chain whitelisted wallets. As such, it’s structurally totally different from freely transferable tokens like USDT and USDC.
Hong Kong greenback CBDC will probably be placed on the again burner
The bank-led stablecoin mannequin additionally displays the HKMA’s resolution to deprioritize retail use of central financial institution digital currencies after an 11-party pilot program accomplished in October discovered that retail use was weak.
CBDC has traditionally been a giant theme at Hong Kong FinTech Week. Final 12 months there was virtually no point out of it. As an alternative, stablecoins turned a scorching matter.
Normal Chartered CEO Invoice Winters stated on the time that Hong Kong’s push for stablecoins and tokenized deposits may “lay the foundations for a brand new period of digital commerce funds”, positioning them as new mediums for cross-border commerce.
It stays to be seen whether or not the market agrees.
Stablecoins are a roughly $310 billion asset class, with USD-denominated tokens accounting for nearly all of that.
In keeping with information from CoinGecko, the biggest stablecoins by market capitalization are pegged to the greenback, with tokens pegged to the euro or yen not making it to the highest.
Hong Kong is betting {that a} regulated bank-issued Hong Kong greenback stablecoin, issued by the identical establishments underneath the identical constraints, can carve out a regional commerce settlement function on new rails.
The query is whether or not non-dollar stablecoins, even when closely regulated, can construct the community results essential to compete.
