Hong Kong's first batch of stablecoin licenses finalized: traditional finance gets the keys first, Web3 remains off the scene

Author | Wu on Blockchain

On April 10, 2026, Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulation entered the “operational” stage: the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced that, under the Stablecoin Ordinance, it granted a stablecoin issuer license to Anchorpoint Financial Technology Limited, a joint venture established by HSBC, Standard Chartered, Ant Group, and Hong Kong Telecom. The license took effect immediately, and the authority stated that the two institutions would commence operations within the coming months after completing necessary preparations. Following this news, related Hong Kong-listed stocks rose, with Guotai Junan International reaching a maximum increase of 27.69%, and Yunfeng Financial (a stablecoin concept stock) up 8.74%.

The HKMA then updated the “Licensed Stablecoin Issuer Register,” revealing basic information about the two licensees:

The possible direction of the next licensing round

Who will receive the next round is the market’s most concerned question, but from a regulatory perspective, there is currently no schedule or specific names. The full list of the 36 applicants in Hong Kong and their reasons for rejection have not been disclosed, and only by reverse-engineering the HKMA’s description of the screening criteria can one infer “why these two were selected.”

According to a technical briefing from HK Radio, HKMA Deputy Chief Executive Yiu Wai-man stated that future license issuance will follow an “open yet cautious” approach, with no clear inclination at this stage; even if more licenses are issued later, the total number will remain limited.

He further explained that the decision to issue licenses is based on a comprehensive comparison of application conditions, and “coincidentally,” both institutions have banking backgrounds. Industry media also quoted him as emphasizing that there is no “schedule for additional licenses” at present, and when to issue more will depend on implementation results, market acceptance, and international trends, among other factors. The HKMA also declined to disclose potential applicants.

In the early stages of the system’s implementation, the HKMA explicitly stated in July 2025 when releasing the regulatory framework that licensing would be an ongoing process. Institutions that wish to be considered “as soon as possible” should submit their applications before September 30, 2025. The HKMA also reminded market participants to be cautious in public statements to avoid creating unrealistic expectations, and pointed out that under the Stablecoin Ordinance, “falsely claiming to be a license holder or applicant” constitutes a criminal offense. This explains why the “next round list” is difficult to confirm in advance at the official level.

The most noteworthy aspect of the next round remains the other participants in the HKMA’s stablecoin issuer sandbox. In July 2024, the HKMA announced the first batch of sandbox participants, including JD Chain Technology (Hong Kong), Yuan Coin Innovation Technology, and others.

However, the HKMA also clarified that the sandbox is merely a “small-scale trial” mechanism designed to allow institutions to test processes and regulatory compatibility under controlled risk conditions. Participants are initially prohibited from handling public funds or selling products or raising funds from the public. In other words, entering the sandbox is more like taking a practice exam—no license has been granted, and it does not mean the right to officially issue tokens.

Besides sandbox participants, some large companies have also publicly expressed their intentions. For example, media reports indicated that Ant International stated after the passage of the 2025 draft Stablecoin Ordinance that it would submit applications as soon as the channels open and hopes to use stablecoins in cross-border payments, fund management, and other real-world business scenarios.

However, the gap between these “expressed intentions” and “licensing outcomes” has dampened market expectations. Many initially thought that Hong Kong’s move toward compliance would mark the beginning of crypto mainstreaming, but it remains largely symbolic of innovation without breaking the existing system. Native crypto ecosystems and tech giants are still viewed as outsiders, and Hong Kong’s regulatory approach tightly binds innovation with caution. While it appears to open the door to new Web3 forces, in reality, traditional financial institutions still hold the reins over stablecoin control.

But from “expressing intentions” to “actually obtaining a license,” there is clearly a long road ahead. This has also cooled some of the market’s optimistic expectations. The outside world initially viewed this as a starting point for crypto to achieve compliance and mainstream acceptance in Hong Kong; currently, it seems more like a symbolic gesture of innovation that struggles to break the status quo.

The first to get the entry ticket are still mainly institutions with deep traditional financial backgrounds and high regulatory trust. On the surface, Hong Kong has opened its doors to Web3; but in the critical aspect of issuing rights, the initiative remains firmly in the hands of traditional finance. To put it plainly, Hong Kong welcomes innovation but does not intend to truly hand over the key of stablecoins to native crypto projects or tech giants this time.

Standard Chartered HKDAP issuance roadmap

The shareholder structure of Anchorpoint already indicates it is not an ordinary stablecoin company. Behind it stand Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands, representing banking compliance, payment channels, and Web3 ecosystem capabilities respectively. This is akin to a stablecoin being connected from the start to a “bank vault,” “payment gateway,” and “on-chain application network”—combining the most valued licenses, risk control, and governance of traditional finance with the most scarce user reach and application scenarios in Web3 projects. From the outset, the business architecture was built on the principle of “who is responsible for compliance, who handles traffic, and who manages deployment.”

On the day the license was issued, April 10, 2026, Standard Chartered released a press statement detailing Anchorpoint’s specific products and strategies: starting in Q2 2026, Anchorpoint plans to “phase in” the issuance of a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP (HKD At Par), adopting a B2B2C model, providing access channels through “designated authorized distributors,” and offering incentives to early ecosystem partners.

The HKMA’s licensing summary states that non-approved applicants must be Hong Kong-registered companies (or establish a local subsidiary in Hong Kong as the applicant); applicants must meet financial resource requirements, with a hard threshold of paid-up capital of at least HKD 25 million (or equivalent freely convertible currency, or other financial resources approved by the HKMA). For each proposed stablecoin, issuers must maintain an independent and segregated reserve asset pool, establish written custodial arrangements with qualified custodians, and ensure that the reserve assets’ market value at all times exceeds the circulating face value of the stablecoin, with appropriate over-collateralization as a buffer. Issuers are also required to establish effective trust arrangements to segregate reserves and protect holders’ rights.

Therefore, as one of Hong Kong’s banknote issuers, Standard Chartered has laid a solid foundation for compliance, ensuring full-chain support for reserve assets, custody, trust, auditing, and redemption processes, and completing the screening, access, and connection of the authorized distribution system. This directly aligns with the HKMA’s minimum standards for reserve segregation, custodial arrangements, trust structures, and one-day redemption requirements.

More notably, Anchorpoint does not position its stablecoin as a mere trading tool but explicitly targets two more practical scenarios: one is the settlement and distribution of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), and the other is cross-border funds and payment flows. The former can be understood as, if bonds, funds, or other real assets are moved onto the chain, HKDAP aims to serve as the “settlement and delivery currency” for these assets.

The latter is closer to everyday use—making cross-border transfers, settlements, and payments no longer as layered and time-consuming as traditional bank remittances. In other words, Anchorpoint does not aim to create another “tradeable Hong Kong dollar token” but strives to become a fundamental on-chain payment tool within Hong Kong’s regulated financial ecosystem.

Other perspectives

Under the current system, Hong Kong has three banknote-issuing banks: HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China (Hong Kong). Comparing the “banknote issuance history” with “stablecoin licensing,” the first licenses indeed fell into the two most creditworthy institutions: HSBC itself is one of the banknote issuers; Anchorpoint is led and controlled by Standard Chartered (also a banknote issuer).

This structure indicates that Hong Kong’s approach is not to let “crypto-native institutions lead first, with regulation catching up later,” but to incorporate stablecoins into the upgrade of traditional financial infrastructure: using high thresholds for “initial screening and subsequent expansion,” and transforming stablecoins from “technological products” into “auditable payment and settlement tools” through clear reserve, custody, trust, and redemption requirements.

Lawyer Liu Honglin, founder of Kun Law Firm, believes that the market’s current focus is on “who gets the first licenses,” but a more critical question is “who will actually use Hong Kong stablecoins.” Licensing determines who can issue, but the real determinants of success are “who is willing to use them, where they will be used,” and whether a network effect can be formed.

In the past, the market often envisioned Hong Kong stablecoins as serving cross-border needs of mainland enterprises, resident allocations, or even as a policy buffer. But given the clear regulatory stance on virtual currencies and stablecoins in mainland China, this demand chain is not solid. Compliance in Hong Kong does not automatically mean products will flow naturally into the mainland market.

The same applies overseas. Users will not automatically accept a stablecoin just because it has a Hong Kong license. Stablecoin competition is more like payment network competition: the more liquidity, the more exchanges, wallets, merchants, and protocols it connects to, and the lower the friction in usage, the more likely it is to become the default choice. The hardest part for latecomers is not issuing the coin but changing users’ existing habits.

HSBC and Anchorpoint may not necessarily compete head-on

Therefore, the first batch of institutions may not be on the same track for direct competition. HSBC has explicitly stated that its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin will launch in the second half of 2026 and will directly integrate with PayMe and HSBC HK App. The initial use cases are daily payments between retail customers and merchants, including P2P, P2M, and tokenized investments within apps. With over 3.3 million PayMe users, HSBC already has a ready retail payment gateway.

In contrast, Anchorpoint emphasizes B2B2C distribution, authorized distributors, and early ecosystem partner incentives, focusing more on building institutional settlement and cross-border fund flow networks. In other words, Hong Kong’s first stablecoins may not initially compete in retail payments but will likely divide roles by channels and scenarios: one from the consumer wallet side, the other from institutional settlement and cross-border flows.

HSBC Hong Kong has clarified that its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin will be integrated into PayMe and HSBC HK Mobile Banking App, with initial use cases defined as daily transactions for retail customers and merchants (P2P, P2M, etc.) and tokenized investments within apps.

The practical challenge of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins: why would users abandon existing payment habits

From the perspective of “who is the target user,” this means that “on-chain native users” are not the initial target for stablecoin transfer, but rather the goal is to embed stablecoins into existing popular payment channels to overcome cold start.

Therefore, for local retail stablecoins to truly gain new adoption, they must answer a more pragmatic question: what new capabilities do they offer compared to FPS, bank cards, and e-wallets? For example, can they enable more convenient programmable payments, achieve instant settlement with on-chain assets, or significantly reduce costs within specific merchant networks? Without these, even with a license, it will be difficult to change users’ established payment habits.

This is also why the market landscape is unlikely to be quickly reshaped in the short term. According to DeFiLlama data, the current total global stablecoin market cap is about $318 billion, with USDT accounting for approximately 58%, and USDC about 24%.

The high concentration of stablecoins means that even if a compliant Hong Kong dollar stablecoin appears, it will be hard to shift the default entry point unless it can achieve “sufficient density” in exchanges, market-making, wallets, payments, and clearing networks.

This is also supported by research from the Federal Reserve. A brief from the Kansas City Fed on April 10, 2026, states that stablecoin uses can be roughly divided into four categories: trading assets, payments, transfers, and idle holdings, with actual payment use accounting for only about 0.7%, less than 1%. The larger portion still circulates within exchanges, DeFi, and infrastructure. In other words, today’s global stablecoin battlefield is still primarily about crypto finance itself, not everyday transactions.

Therefore, a new Hong Kong dollar stablecoin that merely positions itself as a “compliant payment tool” will find it difficult to grow rapidly. It faces a mature network where user habits, liquidity, and channels are already well established.