Hong Kong Issues Stablecoin Licenses
On-chain finance enters a new institutional phase, and the race to build on-chain monetary infrastructure begins
On April 10, 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially issued its first batch of stablecoin issuance licenses and simultaneously published the register of licensed institutions. The two initial license holders are Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, with license numbers FRS01 and FRS02 respectively. Both licenses took effect on April 10, 2026. This move marks the transition of Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulatory framework into an operational phase and positions the city at the forefront of global institutional competition in on-chain finance.
These two licenses are highly representative in themselves. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is backed by HSBC Holdings plc. The other license holder, Anchorpoint Financial Limited, is jointly established by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, and Animoca Brands Limited. This combination is particularly noteworthy: on one side, the international banking system; on the other, local telecommunications and digital infrastructure; and alongside them, one of Hong Kong’s most representative digital asset platforms. Financial capital, network capabilities, and Web3 capabilities are being integrated into a single licensed entity.
Hong Kong has approved two institutions to issue stablecoins, with the initial phase of operations focused on Hong Kong dollar-denominated stablecoins. The real signal here is that Hong Kong has taken the lead in advancing the three-layer structure of a future on-chain monetary system into a clear institutional framework. In its e-HKD Phase 2 report, the HKMA has explicitly distinguished between public money and private money, where public money includes CBDC, and private money includes tokenised deposits and stablecoins. This official framework effectively lays out the structural blueprint for the future of on-chain finance.
Following this structure, Hong Kong is advancing a complete on-chain monetary system. The first layer is the future digital Hong Kong dollar, representing the public money layer and serving as the highest-level credit anchor, settlement foundation, and institutional backing. The second layer consists of tokenised deposits, representing the bank money layer, transforming commercial bank deposits into on-chain objects that are operable, settlement-ready, and programmable. The third layer is stablecoins, representing the circulation layer, enabling money to move beyond single bank account relationships into wallets, platforms, RWA products, and cross-scenario payment networks.
Looking across major global economies, we can draw a comparative view of on-chain finance development:
The United States has the world’s strongest crypto asset market and the deepest liquidity in USD stablecoins. Innovation has largely been driven by market forces, while institutional integration has progressed with a clear element of strategic tension.
The European Union has established a unified regulatory framework through MiCA, with a high level of legislative completeness and clear compliance boundaries. However, bank-led deployment of on-chain monetary systems and the coordinated advancement between the public money layer and the circulation layer remain relatively cautious.
Hong Kong’s approach is closer to a structured financial engineering model: regulators establish the framework first, banks enter directly, market interfaces are opened simultaneously, and the three layers of money evolve in parallel.
Hong Kong’s understanding of future on-chain finance is closer to that of a new financial operating environment. Capital can be expressed in standardized form, transferred across systems, embedded into smart contract execution, and operate alongside asset tokenization, fund shares, bond instruments, and yield distribution logic. Capital is evolving from “account records” into “system objects,” and financial activity is shifting from “manual coordination” to “rule-based orchestration.”
From this perspective, the significance of these two licenses extends far beyond the institutions themselves. HSBC obtaining a license signals that globally systemic banks have begun to treat stablecoins as a formal business direction. Anchorpoint obtaining a license reflects Hong Kong’s choice of a more platform-oriented path: banks, telecommunications networks, and digital asset companies participating together. The objective is clearly not limited to issuing a single “on-chain HKD token,” but to build broader capabilities across payments, circulation, connectivity, and scenario integration.
The emergence of these two approaches simultaneously indicates that Hong Kong has a highly mature positioning of stablecoins: they are both financial instruments and new infrastructure interfaces. It also shows that across key dimensions, including regulatory design, institutional language, licensing implementation, bank participation, and real-world testing, Hong Kong has already constructed the core framework of future on-chain finance. While many economies remain focused on individual instruments, Hong Kong is organizing a multi-layer monetary system.
Based on this, we can form a relatively clear outlook. In Hong Kong, stablecoins will gradually become the core interface for RWA, on-chain asset management, digital payments, and cross-platform settlement. Tokenised deposits are likely to expand first in high-certainty scenarios such as corporate treasury management, interbank fund arrangements, and cross-border trade payments. The digital Hong Kong dollar will continue to move toward a higher-level role in settlement and institutional anchoring. Once interoperability and rule alignment across these three layers are achieved, Hong Kong is likely to become one of the most mature on-chain finance hubs globally.