In a landmark move, Hong Kong has awarded its inaugural stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered that includes Animoca Brands, as announced on Friday. The approvals, made by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the territory's central bank, signify the first batch of licenses issued under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025. According to HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue, "We look forward to the issuers launching their businesses as planned, exploring growth opportunities while properly managing risks." Yue further expressed his hopes that the promotion of regulated stablecoins will address pain points in financial and economic activities, create value for both individuals and businesses, and support the healthy development of digital assets in Hong Kong.
Following the assessment of 36 applications, the HKMA has signaled that the initial round of approvals would be limited, with Financial Secretary Paul Chan stating in his February budget address that only a small number would be approved. The regulator has prioritized risk management, reserve quality, and anti-money-laundering controls.
Notably, the decision to license the city's note-issuing banks first appears to be a deliberate move, with HSBC and Standard Chartered being two of only three commercial banks authorized to print Hong Kong dollar banknotes. This system dates back to 1846, when private banks began issuing currency backed by silver deposits in the absence of a colonial central bank. Today, each note-issuing bank deposits U.S.
dollars with the government's Exchange Fund at a fixed rate and receives Certificates of Indebtedness in return, against which it prints banknotes. In a December 2023 blog post, Yue drew a parallel between pre-1935 banknotes issued by commercial banks in exchange for deposited silver, which he referred to as a form of "private money," and stablecoins, which function as their blockchain-based equivalent. The licenses come with one of the world's strictest Know Your Customer (KYC) frameworks for digital money, with licensed stablecoins only transferable to wallets whose owners have been identity-verified. Additionally, the travel rule applies to transfers above HK$8,000.
This means that HKD stablecoins will likely embed compliance checks into their smart contracts, restricting transfers to wallets listed in an on-chain white list, making them structurally different from freely transferable tokens. The bank-led stablecoin model also reflects the HKMA's decision to deprioritize its central bank digital currency for retail use, following an 11-group pilot program that found the retail case to be weak. Instead, stablecoins have become a key focus, with Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters stating that Hong Kong's push into stablecoins and tokenized deposits could lay the foundation for a new era of digital trade settlement.
However, whether the market agrees remains to be seen, as stablecoins are a roughly $310 billion asset class, with USD-denominated tokens dominating nearly all of it.