The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) received 36 formal applications under the city's Stablecoins Ordinance, which came into force on August 1, 2025. Of those, the regulator is expected to approve only three to five licenses in the first round.

The HKMA's chief executive, Eddie Yue, told Hong Kong's Legislative Council in February that the initial issuance would be deliberately limited. "The number of licences to be issued initially will certainly not be large," Yue said at a February 2 session.

Who Is in the First Batch

HSBC is applying as a solo issuer, drawing on its position as one of three note-issuing banks in Hong Kong and its extensive correspondent banking networks across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

The second applicant is Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture formed by Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Web3 investment firm Animoca Brands, and telecoms operator HKT. The three partners participated in the HKMA's stablecoin issuer sandbox, which launched in July 2024 and gave regulators a supervised environment to observe operational behavior before formalizing the licensing regime.

OSL, a Hong Kong-licensed crypto exchange, rounds out the reported first cohort. The specific stablecoin product OSL intends to issue, including what currency peg it would use, has not been publicly disclosed.

A China-affiliated applicant, JD Coinlink Technology, is not expected to receive early approval, according to reporting by Asia Times and Dim Sum Daily, citing geopolitical sensitivities.

Anchorpoint Financial has confirmed it plans to issue a stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD). HSBC's specific currency peg has not been publicly disclosed, though the Ordinance's framework broadly targets HKD-pegged stablecoins in its initial phase. A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a fixed value relative to a reference currency, typically pegged to a fiat currency such as the HKD, and is used to move value across payment systems without price volatility.

Beyond the reported first cohort, notable applicants include RD InnoTech, backed by former HKMA chief executive Norman Chan, and HashKey Group. The involvement of a former regulator in a competing application adds political texture to a process that attracted 36 formal submissions.

What the Rules Require

Hong Kong is the second major Asian jurisdiction, after Japan, to implement a standalone stablecoin law. The Stablecoins Ordinance sets strict operational requirements for licensed issuers. They must hold reserves of at least 100 percent of outstanding tokens, with overcollateralisation expected in practice, using only high-quality liquid assets. Qualifying assets include short-term bank deposits with maturities of no more than three months and marketable debt securities with maturities of no more than one year.

Reserve assets must be fully segregated from the issuer's own holdings and denominated in the same currency as the stablecoin itself. Token holders have an unconditional right to redeem at face value within one business day. Algorithmic stablecoins (those backed by code or other tokens rather than real assets) are explicitly prohibited, as are partially-backed stablecoins.

Issuers are also barred from paying interest to stablecoin holders, a feature that also limits their composability within decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

To obtain a license, issuers must meet minimum capital thresholds of HK$25 million in paid-up share capital and HK$3 million in liquid capital. Those requirements help explain why the applicant pool skews toward established financial institutions rather than newer crypto-native firms.

The HKMA's approach treats stablecoins as payment infrastructure rather than speculative crypto assets, applying scrutiny standards closer to those used for deposit-taking institutions. Yue said the review process weighs risk management protocols, anti-money laundering controls, reserve asset quality, and the practical viability of each proposed use case.

Market Context and Regional Stakes

The timing matters. Global stablecoin market capitalization stood at roughly $312 billion in 2025 and is projected to approach $1 trillion by the end of 2026, according to industry estimates. On-chain stablecoin transaction volume reached approximately $35 trillion in 2025, up 72 percent year over year.

In Asia-Pacific alone, cross-border stablecoin inflows hit around $407 billion, with average transaction sizes near $11,500, according to Tiger Research data. Tron remains the dominant settlement layer for stablecoin volume in Asia and Africa, processing $3.3 trillion compared to Ethereum's $1.2 trillion.

For South Asia, the implications are direct. India receives more than $120 billion in annual remittances (World Bank), with significant flows originating from Hong Kong, the UK, and the Gulf. Licensed stablecoins from institutions with existing branch networks across South Asia could reduce settlement times and fees on those corridors.

The Ordinance restricts unlicensed foreign stablecoins to serving only professional investors in Hong Kong, meaning foreign-issued products without HKMA licensing cannot be offered to local retail users. A separate and open question concerns whether licensed HKD stablecoins will be permitted for outbound remittances by retail users in Hong Kong and whether recipients in South Asian jurisdictions will have access to those products under applicable local regulations.

Standard Chartered's footprint across more than 15 African markets makes Anchorpoint Financial relevant there too. Sub-Saharan Africa carries some of the world's highest remittance fees, averaging 7 to 9 percent of transaction value. A bank-issued, regulated HKD stablecoin operating on programmable payment rails would not immediately displace Tron-based USDT, which has achieved widespread grassroots adoption in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. But it could accelerate regulatory movement in those markets, where financial authorities have closely watched Asian licensing models. Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, Kenya's Capital Markets Authority, and South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority are among the regulators tracking developments in the region.

The China Divergence

Beijing has banned unauthorized onshore yuan-pegged stablecoins and restricted offshore renminbi stablecoin activity. That policy contrast positions Hong Kong as a regulated conduit for digital asset activity that mainland China will not permit domestically, reinforcing the city's role as a bridge between Chinese trade networks and global financial infrastructure.

The HKMA has also signaled it may explore mutual recognition agreements with other jurisdictions, which would allow licensed Hong Kong stablecoins to operate across borders under a framework of coordinated oversight. A formal announcement is expected as early as March 24. As only the second major Asian jurisdiction after Japan to establish a standalone stablecoin framework, Hong Kong is positioning its regulated stablecoins as infrastructure for the next generation of cross-border payments, with potential implications stretching from remittance corridors in South Asia to trade finance networks across Africa.