Hong Kong's monetary authority is expected to grant its first stablecoin issuer licences around March 24, a date that has not been formally confirmed, with HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial among the initial recipients, according to sources cited by the South China Morning Post. Anchorpoint is a joint venture formed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), gaming and Web3 firm Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong telecom operator HKT. The licences would mark the first formal approvals under the city's Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect on August 1, 2025. Both HSBC and Standard Chartered declined to comment on the reports.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority received 36 formal applications before the September 30, 2025 deadline, following expressions of interest from 77 companies as of August 31, 2025. HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue told Hong Kong's Legislative Council in February that the first batch would cover only "a very small number" of applicants, with reports pointing to three or four licences in total. The regulator's review criteria center on reserve asset quality, risk management frameworks, and anti-money laundering controls.

What Licences Require

Qualifying for a licence under the HKMA framework is deliberately demanding. Applicants must hold at least HK$25 million (roughly USD $3.2 million) in paid-up share capital, maintain liquid capital of at least HK$3 million, and hold excess liquid capital equal to at least 12 months of operating expenses. Issuers must back every token in circulation with high-quality liquid assets, including cash or government securities, held by independent custodians and audited by third parties. KYC and AML obligations mirror those applied to licensed banks. Unlicensed issuance carries penalties of up to HK$5 million and seven years in prison, plus a HK$100,000 daily fine for ongoing violations.

The Applicants

HSBC has been preparing for this moment over several years. The bank participated in the HKMA's Project e-HKD+ programme, testing tokenized deposits across multiple blockchains, and has rolled out live tokenized deposit services for wholesale clients in Hong Kong, Luxembourg, London, and Singapore. Group CEO Georges Elhedery stated: "We are interested in every part of Hong Kong's innovation landscape, and we want to play a role in all of it." Anchorpoint entered the HKMA's sandbox programme as part of the first cohort announced in July 2024. The sandbox itself had launched in March 2024, meaning the consortium had more than a year to test reserve structures, blockchain infrastructure, and compliance systems before the formal licensing regime opened. Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters has described tokenized money as central to the digital asset industry's development, while the venture's HK CEO Mary Huen said the goal is a stablecoin usable by both institutions and individuals across a wide range of applications. Anchorpoint has named Zodia Custody, a Standard Chartered subsidiary, as its institutional digital asset custodian, a detail that strengthens the venture's infrastructure credibility and signals a fully integrated custody model from within the consortium.

Market Context

Global stablecoin supply has crossed $317 billion as of early 2026, with Tether (USDT) accounting for roughly $187 billion and USD Coin (USDC) at approximately $75.7 billion. USD-denominated tokens represent close to 99% of total stablecoin supply, according to Stablecoin Insider 2026. No HKD-backed stablecoin currently appears in the top 20 by market cap. An HSBC or Anchorpoint-issued HKD stablecoin would be the first major non-USD, non-EUR fiat-backed stablecoin from a G10 currency issuer to gain regulatory legitimacy in Asia, though it is unlikely to challenge USDT or USDC at scale in the near term. One structural consideration: the HKD is itself pegged to the USD within a 7.75 to 7.85 band under Hong Kong's Linked Exchange Rate System, meaning its stablecoin utility is partly tied to USD stability.

Regional Implications

For users outside Hong Kong, particularly in South and Southeast Asia and across Africa, the licences carry practical significance. HSBC operates banking networks across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. A regulated HKD stablecoin from HSBC could provide a bank-grade settlement instrument for South Asia to Hong Kong trade and, in theory, lower-cost remittance corridors for the more than 300,000 foreign domestic workers based in Hong Kong, many of whom originate from the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Asian countries. Whether that retail access materialises depends heavily on whether simplified KYC pathways are offered, given that the current framework's compliance requirements are calibrated to institutional participants.

The Africa angle centres on Standard Chartered's footprint across more than 15 African countries. Trade between African markets and China relies on USDT as the de facto settlement currency in many informal and semi-formal trade networks. A regulated, bank-issued HKD stablecoin could offer African corporates a compliant alternative for settling trade invoices with Hong Kong counterparties specifically, reducing exposure to unregulated issuers. For context, correspondent banking fees on intra-African payments alone exceed $5 billion per year, and per-transaction costs can run $10 to $20 using traditional rails compared to roughly $1 via stablecoin infrastructure.

Developer and Builder Implications

For developers and builders across South Asia, Africa, and the broader Asian market, the composition of the Anchorpoint consortium carries particular significance. Animoca Brands' involvement introduces Web3 and on-chain gaming expertise into a fully regulated stablecoin structure, creating potential settlement infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets and blockchain-native applications that have previously lacked a bank-grade, Asia-domiciled currency anchor. The compliance architecture established by Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance is also expected to influence regulatory thinking in markets including India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Kenya, all of which are actively developing or reviewing their own digital asset frameworks. For builders working on intra-Asian payment corridors, the entry of a non-USD, non-EUR G10-backed stablecoin into a regulated environment adds a meaningful new option for applications where USD stablecoin exposure introduces currency or regulatory risk.

What Comes Next

Hong Kong's move puts it in direct competition with Singapore, whose Monetary Authority finalized a single-currency stablecoin framework in August 2023. Hong Kong's ordinance applies a broader scope, including offshore issuers of HKD-pegged tokens, and its selection of major TradFi banks as early licensees signals a stronger integration with existing financial infrastructure. One unresolved variable involves mainland Chinese state banks: ICBC and Bank of China both submitted applications under Hong Kong's framework. Separately, Beijing has reportedly directed major mainland technology firms to pause private stablecoin development. That directive targets technology companies rather than state-owned banks, and whether it indirectly affects state bank-linked applications under Hong Kong's distinct legal system is a separate and still-open question as the unconfirmed March 24 target date approaches.