Hong Kong Grants First Two Stablecoin Licenses as HSBC Launches Coin Through PayMe
Key Facts
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted the first two licenses to issue fiat-referenced stablecoins, which took effect on 10 April 2026, according to the authority’s register. Anchorpoint Financial received license FRS01, while HSBC received license FRS02. Anchorpoint includes a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands. The HKMA said the two entities plan to issue stablecoins linked to the Hong Kong dollar. Uses announced by the licensees include domestic and cross-border payments, trading in tokenized assets and other innovative applications.
The licenses followed the launch of Hong Kong’s licensing regime for issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins, which took effect on 1 August 2025. The regime requires a license to conduct issuance activity in the city. The authority had invited parties seeking to apply early to submit applications by 30 September 2025, while licensing remains an open process. The HKMA said its licensing team reviewed applications over the six months before the announcement. It said the assessment covered applicants’ risk-management experience and compliance with rules in Hong Kong and other jurisdictions, as well as distinctive use cases and viable business plans.
The licenses are moving into user-facing services with HSBC’s launch of its HSBC RedCoin, ticker RCHKD, on the PayMe app on 23 October 2026. The bank said the coin is denominated in Hong Kong dollars and regulated by the HKMA. It said more than 3.3 million PayMe users would be able to activate a wallet for the coin within the app. The service also enables payments to individuals and at more than 100,000 merchants through PayMe. The launch puts everyday payments among the first available uses for the licensed coin.
HSBC said an internal trial involving nearly 100 users tested the stages of coin creation, wallet activation and live transfers before launch. The bank plans to add the wallet to its mobile banking app later in the year. It also intends to enable subscriptions to tokenized investment products, expanding planned uses beyond transfers and payments. A survey conducted by the bank in June 2026 had previously found that 53% of respondents cited peer-to-peer transfers among stablecoin use cases. Another 52% cited cross-border transfers, while 52% pointed to merchant payments.
The HKMA links the stablecoin rollout to the development of infrastructure for tokenized deposits and assets. On 2 November 2026, it announced that EnsembleTX, a phase of Project Ensemble, had entered a new stage for settling interbank transactions in tokenized deposits using tokenized central bank money. It said settlement would be available around the clock. It added that trials would soon expand to include regulated stablecoins. The two licensees had taken part in the authority’s earlier pilot projects on central bank digital currencies and tokenized deposits, in addition to receiving issuance licenses.
The Hong Kong government said the timing and direction of any additional licenses had not been decided, and that the total number would remain very limited if further licenses were issued. It said the assessment would take into account practical, actionable use cases, a robust and sustainable business model, and compliance with Hong Kong laws and those of relevant jurisdictions. Pre-launch requirements also include testing platforms and systems and implementing risk-management measures. These measures include reserve custody, price-stabilization and redemption mechanisms, and technology security. The government did not announce a timetable for the next step.