Hong Kong Grants First Stablecoin Issuer Licenses to HSBC and Standard Chartered Venture as City Bets on Regulated Digital Assets
The HKMA selected HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial from 36 applicants to issue Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoins under the city's new Stablecoins Ordinance, with launches expected by late 2026.
Overview
Hong Kong’s monetary authority granted its first two stablecoin issuer licenses on April 10, awarding them to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture of Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecommunications. The two licensees were selected from a pool of 36 applicants under the city’s Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025, according to Bloomberg. Both entities plan to issue Hong Kong dollar-denominated stablecoins, with launches expected between the second quarter and the second half of 2026.
The decision marks a deliberate pivot by Hong Kong regulators toward embedding stablecoin issuance within the traditional banking system rather than handing the initiative to crypto-native firms.
What We Know
The Licensees
HSBC, one of Hong Kong’s three note-issuing banks, received license code FRS02. The bank plans to launch its HKD-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, integrating it directly into its PayMe consumer app and HSBC HK Mobile Banking platform, according to Bloomberg. Initial use cases will focus on peer-to-peer payments, peer-to-merchant transactions, and tokenized investment subscriptions within the app. HSBC Hong Kong CEO Maggie Ng said the license “aligns with Hong Kong’s ambition to become a global digital asset hub.”
Anchorpoint Financial, which received license code FRS01, is a consortium formed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT), and blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands. Anchorpoint plans to issue its stablecoin, branded HKDAP, starting in the second quarter of 2026 using a business-to-business-to-consumer distribution model through authorized partners, according to The Block. Its early focus will target tokenized asset settlement and cross-border payment flows.
Regulatory Requirements
The Stablecoins Ordinance imposes strict operational requirements on licensees. Issuers must maintain minimum paid-up share capital of HK$25 million (approximately $3.2 million) and hold liquid capital equal to at least 12 months of operating expenses, according to Cointelegraph. All stablecoins must be fully backed by high-quality, liquid reserve assets held in segregated accounts with qualified custodians, and issuers must offer one-for-one redemption at par within one business day.
The ordinance explicitly prohibits algorithmic stablecoins — those that maintain their peg through code-based supply adjustments rather than reserve backing. Issuers must implement anti-money laundering controls, blockchain analytics for suspicious transaction detection, and customer identity verification either directly or through third-party distributors.
HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue stated that the regime “gives stablecoin issuers a regulated framework to operate in Hong Kong while requiring safeguards around user protection and risk management,” according to Cointelegraph. He indicated that the licensing threshold would remain high and that the overall number of licensees would remain “very limited.”
Selection Process
The HKMA received 36 applications before the September 30, 2025 deadline. The authority prioritized candidates with extensive traditional finance and risk management backgrounds, effectively favoring incumbent banks over crypto-native companies. Notable applicants that did not receive licenses in this first round include Ant International, the fintech arm of Alibaba Group, and JD Coinlink Technology, which had participated in the HKMA’s stablecoin sandbox program launched in July 2024, according to Bloomberg.
What We Don’t Know
Several important questions remain unanswered. The HKMA has not disclosed detailed reasons for rejecting 34 of 36 applicants, nor has it published a timeline for considering additional license applications. The specific composition of reserve assets each licensee will hold — whether primarily Hong Kong government bonds, bank deposits, or a combination — has not been publicly detailed.
It is also unclear how the HKD-pegged stablecoins will interact with Hong Kong’s existing Faster Payment System (FPS), which already handles real-time interbank transfers. The potential overlap between a bank-issued stablecoin accessible through PayMe and the existing digital payment infrastructure raises questions about whether these tokens will create genuinely new payment rails or primarily serve as on-ramps to tokenized financial products.
Analysis
Hong Kong’s decision to award its inaugural stablecoin licenses exclusively to traditional banking consortia stands in contrast to the approach taken by other jurisdictions. In the United States, the GENIUS Act passed in July 2025 created a framework that accommodates both bank and non-bank issuers, while the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation similarly permits a range of institutional types to issue stablecoins.
The choice signals that Hong Kong regulators view stablecoins primarily as an extension of the existing banking system rather than as a parallel financial infrastructure. By routing stablecoin issuance through institutions that already operate under full banking supervision, the HKMA is betting that regulatory familiarity and established risk management frameworks will reduce the likelihood of the reserve mismanagement and de-pegging events that have plagued earlier stablecoin experiments elsewhere.
For the broader digital asset industry in Hong Kong, the outcome is mixed. The city gains a regulated stablecoin ecosystem that could support tokenized securities settlement and programmable payments. But the exclusion of crypto-native firms from the first licensing round may reinforce perceptions that Hong Kong’s crypto hub ambitions favor incumbents over innovators.