In a historic move, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued its first stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered that includes Animoca Brands, on Friday. This approval signifies the first batch of licenses granted under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which was enacted in August 2025. According to HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue, "We anticipate that the licensed issuers will initiate their operations as planned, exploring growth opportunities while effectively managing associated risks." Yue further expressed his hopes that the promotion of regulated stablecoins would address existing challenges in financial and economic activities, create value for both individuals and businesses, and support the healthy development of digital assets in Hong Kong.
The HKMA reviewed 36 applications and had previously indicated that only a limited number of licenses would be awarded in the initial round. Financial Secretary Paul Chan mentioned in his February budget address that the regulator would prioritize a small number of approvals, focusing on risk management, reserve quality, and anti-money-laundering controls. The decision to license note-issuing banks first appears to be a deliberate move, given that HSBC and Standard Chartered are among the three commercial banks authorized to print Hong Kong dollar banknotes, a system dating back to 1846. 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 parallels between pre-1935 banknotes issued by commercial banks in exchange for deposited silver, which functioned as a form of "private money," and stablecoins, which serve as their blockchain-based equivalent.
The licenses are subject to one of the world's strictest KYC frameworks for digital money, requiring that licensed stablecoins can only be transferred to wallets whose owners have undergone identity verification. The travel rule applies to transfers exceeding 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 distinct from freely transferable tokens.
The bank-led stablecoin model 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. Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters believes that Hong Kong's push into stablecoins and tokenized deposits could lay the foundation for a new era of digital trade settlement. However, it remains to be seen whether the market will agree, given that stablecoins are a roughly $310 billion asset class dominated by USD-denominated tokens.
Hong Kong is betting that regulated, bank-issued HKD stablecoins can carve out a role in regional trade settlement, but the question is whether a non-dollar stablecoin can build the necessary network effects to compete.