Initial phase
In the initial phase, both licensees plan to issue Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoins, with intended use cases including cross-border payments, domestic payments, and tokenized asset settlement.
Weekly Briefing
Global Policy Watch
Global Digital Finance Infrastructure Moves into Execution Phase
Execution Focus - Decoding HK's Stablecoin Licensing
Opening brief
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has officially granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses to Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC). According to the HKMA, the first round attracted 36 applications. To secure a license, applicants had to demonstrate not only compliance with the statutory requirements under the Stablecoins Ordinance, but also two deeper capabilities-the ability to manage risk and execute compliance across jurisdictions, as well as the ability to present credible use cases with a viable business plan.
Why Anchorpoint and HSBC
Infrastructure, not branding, is the first test
The HKMA makes its priorities clear. It is looking for applicants with strong risk management and compliance capabilities, as well as distinct use cases supported by viable business plans. The biggest reason for two licensees standing out is the fact that they have the capability to reintegrate stablecoins into a regulated payments and settlement framework.
More specifically, Anchorpoint's strength lies in its consortium structure, which is backed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT), and Animoca Brands, bringing banking, telecom, payments, and digital asset ecosystem capabilities together. HSBC's advantage, by contrast, lies in its position within the existing banking infrastructure, which already has the account system, settlement capacity, customer base, compliance architecture, and banking channels.
The consequence is clear. From the outset, Hong Kong's first stablecoin race has been defined as an infrastructure competition. The first licensees need to prove that they can handle invisible but decisive back-end requirements such as reserve management, redemption execution, AML controls, technical reliability, and multi-party coordination.
Meanings
What the licensing threshold is really screening for
The paid-up capital requirement of HKD 25 million is only the outer layer of the barrier. Frankly, the HKMA is screening out business models that cannot survive long-term operation or withstand cross-border regulatory pressure. It essentially requires whether licensees can operate the stablecoins on a banking-grade, infrastructure-grade basis over time, which means licensees can show that their business is prudent and sound, with a realistic, specific and sustainable commercial plan, sufficient resources to execute that plan and withstand internal and external shocks, and the capacity to comply not only in Hong Kong but also in other relevant jurisdictions.
Importantly, licensees should prove that they are treating stablecoins as payment and settlement instruments that must be redeemable quickly, unconditionally, and verifiably instead of deposit-like products. To keep stablecoins at par, the issuers must hold reserve assets at least equal to the face value of the circulating coins. Those reserves must consist of highly liquid, low-risk assets, be segregated from the issuers' own assets, protected through effective trust arrangements, and subject to independent external audit. In principle, valid redemption requests must be processed within on business day and at par value.
Operational implications
Why enterprise use cases are likely to move first
Besides, without bank accounts, settlement arrangements, and reliable fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, a stablecoin remains an isolated unit of value and doesn't become a real payment instrument. According to HKMA's expectations, every use case requires stablecoins to function both on-chain and within the fiat financial system. At the same time, the HKMA expects licensees to comply not only in Hong Kong but also in other relevant jurisdictions, and to maintain strong AML/CFT controls, including the use of blockchain analytics tools to identify suspicious transactions.
The reason is that the real difficulty in use cases like cross-border payments lies in AML/CFT obligations, data protection rules, customer identification requirements, fiat conversion arrangements, and the allocation of legal responsibility across jurisdictions.
This is why the first phase is far more likely to gain traction in enterprise and institutional scenarios than in everyday retail payments. In detail, Hong Kong already has mature payment tools for day-to-day consumer use, and retail users are unlikely to switch simply for a marginal improvement in speed. By contrast, enterprise-level issues related to across-border payments, supply-chain finance, and tokenized asset settlement still suffer from real frictions in transparency, timing, programmability, and transaction coordination.
Conclusion
To conclude, Hong Kong moved quickly to establish its licensing framework under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect on 1 August 2025. Now that the first licenses have been issued in April 2026, the standard by which the regime will be judged has formally changed, signaling the pendulum of HKD-backed stablecoins has swung from legislative preparation to practical implementation.