In a historic move, Hong Kong has granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered that includes Animoca Brands, as announced on Friday. These approvals, made by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the territory's central bank, signify the first batch under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which became effective in August 2025. According to Eddie Yue, the chief executive of HKMA, "We look forward to the issuers launching their businesses as planned, exploring growth opportunities while properly managing risks." He further expressed his hope 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. The HKMA evaluated 36 applications and had indicated that the initial round would be limited.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan mentioned in his February budget address that only a small number would be approved, with the regulator prioritizing risk management, reserve quality, and anti-money-laundering controls. The decision to license the city's note-issuing banks first appears to be deliberate, given that HSBC and Standard Chartered are two of only 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 a parallel between pre-1935 banknotes issued by commercial banks in exchange for deposited silver, which were 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, where licensed stablecoins can only be transferred to wallets whose owners have been identity-verified, and the travel rule applies to transfers above HK$8,000. This implies 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 was weak. Instead, stablecoins have become a significant 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.
Whether the market agrees remains to be seen, given that stablecoins are a roughly $310 billion asset class dominated by USD-denominated tokens. The question is whether regulated, bank-issued HKD stablecoins can carve out a role in regional trade settlement and build the necessary network effects to compete.