Hong Kong’s stablecoin experiment has entered its first controlled market test.
On August 12, Anchorpoint began phase-one Beta Access for HKDAP, initially involving institutional distributors and professional investors. HashKey and OSL are among the first issuer-authorised distributors. HashKey has completed an initial client mint-and-redemption transaction with fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, while OSL provides distribution, liquidity, exchange, trading and settlement support.
It is more than a demonstration token, yet far from a broad retail currency. Anchorpoint has disclosed no circulation, distinct-user or sustained transaction-volume data. Wider retail access could begin by the end of 2026, subject to market conditions.
The launch takes Hong Kong beyond legislation and regulatory signaling. The commercial question remains: can a Hong Kong dollar token attract durable demand outside crypto trading?
Thirty-six applications, two initial licences
Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance took effect on August 1, 2025. It requires a licence to issue specified stablecoins in Hong Kong in the course of business, or to issue a Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoin outside Hong Kong in the course of business.
Issuers must maintain segregated reserve assets whose value at least equals the stablecoins in circulation. Valid redemption requests must be honoured at par as soon as practicable. The often-cited one-business-day standard comes from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s supervisory guideline rather than the ordinance itself. A non-bank licensee must maintain at least HK$25 million in paid-up capital or equivalent approved resources, and licensees may not pay interest on their stablecoins.
The HKMA also expects every holder to be identified, unless an issuer can demonstrate effective alternative safeguards. HKDAP’s Ethereum-based Beta makes that restriction concrete: Transfers are limited at smart-contract level to addresses verified through at least one issuer-authorised distributor. Transfers to unverified addresses are automatically rejected.
The HKMA received 36 applications and granted the first two licences, to Anchorpoint and HSBC, on April 10, 2026. Mainland regulators had meanwhile hardened their position on private stablecoins and offshore issuance. Ant Group and JD.com suspended planned Hong Kong initiatives following intervention by mainland regulators, according to reports. The HKMA has not disclosed the full applicant list, individual outcomes or the number of withdrawals.
Anchorpoint is a joint venture of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands. HSBC plans to connect its coin to PayMe and its Hong Kong app for transfers, merchant payments and tokenised investments, but had not launched by mid-August.
The initial market is therefore bank-backed and institution-heavy. Hong Kong has licensed a supervised settlement instrument, not permissionless private money.
Different rules, different objectives
Across major markets, the common direction is full or near-full reserves, segregation, redemption rights and strict financial-crime controls. The policy objectives differ.
Europe has the most complete cross-border framework. Under MiCA, a token referencing one official currency is an e-money token whose issuer must generally be a credit institution or electronic-money institution. Holders can redeem at par without a fee, and issuers and crypto-asset service providers may not grant interest.
MiCA also requires an issuer to stop issuing when a non-EU currency token’s use as a means of exchange within a single currency area exceeds both one million transactions and €200 million a day on a quarterly-average basis. It is a monetary-sovereignty defence, not a general restriction on trading or redemption.
The United States is building a federal-state framework through the GENIUS Act, but its issuer regime had not taken effect by August 13. Distribution is further ahead: Visa lets participating institutions settle obligations in USDC seven days a week; PayPal and Venmo support PYUSD; Shopify merchants can accept USDC; and Stripe accepts stablecoin payments into fiat, although Connect USDC payouts remain a limited private preview.
Circle’s structure also shows where US policy is heading. Outside the European Economic Area, USDC was still issued under state authorities by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. Circle received final OCC approval in July for a national trust bank that will begin with custody, while a separately chartered New York trust is intended to assume non-EEA issuance. That migration had not been publicly confirmed by August 13.
Japan contains risk through regulated issuer types. JPYC, the first domestic yen stablecoin under the post-2023 regime, is live, but JPYC EX limits direct issuance to ¥1 million per transaction and redemption to ¥1 million a day. Singapore has moved in the reverse sequence: Its dedicated stablecoin label is not yet in force, but XSGD already works behind familiar wallets and QR payments as a clearing and settlement asset. Consumers need not hold the token directly.
Switzerland has no dedicated stablecoin statute in force. Its strength lies in regulated custody, tokenized securities and institutional settlement. In April 2026, six regulated banks joined Swiss Stablecoin AG in an industry-led live test of a franc-denominated coin. The pattern is institutional rather than retail.
The economics HKDAP must prove
Regulation can make a token safe enough to hold. It cannot make holding it economical.
HKDAP pays no interest. At the August 11 tender, the average accepted yield on 91-day Hong Kong Exchange Fund Bills was 2.69%. At that rate, moving HK$100 million into non-interest-bearing HKDAP for 90 days would forgo about HK$663,000, or HK$7,370 a day.
That is an illustrative gross benchmark, not a universal upper bound. The actual cost depends on a company’s marginal use of liquidity: It may be lower for idle deposits, but higher where HKDAP displaces money-market assets, collateral or debt repayment.
The issuer-level prohibition does not determine where incentives ultimately appear. PayPal pays rewards on eligible PYUSD balances even though Paxos, the issuer, pays nothing. Whether Hong Kong distributors offer rebates, fee waivers or funded settlement lines may matter more for adoption than the formal ban. Anchorpoint and its distributors have not addressed the question.
Companies should therefore treat HKDAP as working settlement inventory, not a treasury asset. Faster settlement, reduced prefunding, cheaper reconciliation or more efficient collateral must recover the negative carry.
For ordinary domestic transfers, around-the-clock availability alone provides little advantage. Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System already moves Hong Kong dollars and renminbi between banks and wallets in near real time, 24 hours a day. Project Ensemble is testing tokenized bank deposits as settlement assets, while a future e-HKD would represent central-bank money. The HKMA has made no decision on issuance.
HKDAP’s potential edge is portability: a common Hong Kong dollar cash leg moving across approved wallets, exchanges and smart contracts beyond any single bank ledger. It could support atomic settlement of tokenized bonds, funds or other assets. But its present portability extends across a shared, multi-distributor whitelist, not to unidentified users on an open network.
The economic gain is conditional. If HKDAP reduces by one full day the period for which HK$100 million is immobilised as settlement inventory, the released gross carry is about HK$7,370. Atomic settlement may also reduce principal risk and reconciliation, but a 24-hour cash token cannot deliver end-to-end settlement if the asset leg, compliance process or redemption bank remains closed.
Liquidity is the second test. OSL offers liquidity and fiat ramps; HashKey has completed an initial client mint-and-redemption transaction. Yet the legal redemption claim remains against Anchorpoint. The market still lacks a comprehensive fee schedule and evidence on committed market-making, spreads, depth, cut-offs, weekend exits and actual redemption times.
Access to mainland China remains tightly restricted
Hong Kong’s license provides no automatic route into mainland China. In February 2026, Chinese authorities reiterated that virtual-currency business remained illegal on the mainland, prohibited unauthorized offshore issuance of renminbi-linked stablecoins and barred overseas institutions from unlawfully serving mainland entities.
The same policy package also opened a narrower asset channel. The China Securities Regulatory Commission established a pre-issuance filing regime for offshore asset-backed security tokens whose repayment is supported by cash flows from onshore assets or related rights. It is not blanket approval for offshore real world asset issuance, and other approvals and reviews may still be required. The rules neither designate nor privilege Hong Kong, although its regulated tokenized-securities infrastructure makes it a plausible venue.
HKDAP could eventually serve as the cash leg for qualifying mainland-linked assets tokenized in Hong Kong. That is a legally conceivable settlement use case, not yet an established market. Its development will depend on actual filings, transaction structures and the willingness of regulated institutions to use a Hong Kong dollar token.
The credible near-term markets are therefore settlement for tokenized funds, bonds and other real-world assets; round-the-clock transfers among banks and licensed platforms; and payment corridors accepted by regulators on both sides.
Progress should be measured through circulating value, repeat corporate users, transaction turnover, redemption performance, secondary-market spreads and the value of tokenized assets settled in HKDAP. Those figures will distinguish useful financial activity from crypto speculation.
Hong Kong has built a credible gate. HKDAP must now prove that its settlement utility is worth the yield its holders surrender.
Jeffrey Sze is chairman of Habsburg Asia, general partner of Archduke United LPF,and Director of the Austria and Central Europe to Asia AI & Innovation Exchange. He specializes in high-value art transactions and real world asset tokenization operations and secured a cryptocurrency exchange licence in Switzerland in 2017.
