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Standard Chartered-Backed Anchorpoint Launches Hong Kong's First Regulated Stablecoin
14 Aug 2026, 13:42
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Anchorpoint Financial has launched HKDAP, the first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, restricted to institutions and available through only two exchanges, four and a half years after regulators first floated the licensing regime.
Hong Kong's first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin went live on August 12, restricted to institutional users and available through just two exchanges. Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, Hong Kong Telecommunications and Animoca Brands formed in February 2025, began a limited rollout of the token, called HKDAP, which is designed to hold a fixed one-to-one value against the Hong Kong dollar, backed by reserves held in segregated accounts.
The launch caps a licensing process that took considerably longer than regulators originally planned. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority published its first discussion paper on stablecoins back in January 2022 and initially aimed to have a working regime in place by 2023 or 2024. Instead, the formal Stablecoins Ordinance only took effect in August 2025, licenses were granted in April 2026, and a live product did not appear until 16 months after the law took effect. The regulator received 36 applications but has approved only two: Anchorpoint and HSBC, both note-issuing banks that already print part of Hong Kong's physical currency alongside Bank of China (Hong Kong). Officials have said repeatedly that only a handful of licenses would be granted at the outset, describing the approach as deliberately cautious rather than a processing backlog.
Anchorpoint is not selling HKDAP directly to end users. Authorized distributors including OSL Group and HashKey handle conversion between the token and fiat currency for institutions and professional investors, meaning the exchanges, not the issuer, control the client relationship even though Anchorpoint holds the license and the underlying reserves. Anchorpoint CEO Dominic Maffei said the company's near-term focus is on "supporting the development of commercial applications that demonstrate the value of regulated tokenized money in real-world settings, including payments and settlement use cases," pointing to cross-border payments and tokenized real-world asset settlement as early target markets.
Hong Kong's capital requirements for stablecoin issuers are notably stricter than regional peers, requiring a minimum of roughly $3.2 million in paid-up capital plus full reserve backing in high-quality liquid assets, compared with Singapore's roughly $781,000 threshold. HSBC has said it plans to launch its own Hong Kong dollar stablecoin in the second half of 2026 and eventually integrate it into retail banking channels including its PayMe app, while Anchorpoint has indicated retail access for HKDAP could arrive by the end of the year depending on market conditions. For now, the first product to emerge from what regulators describe as Asia's most restrictive stablecoin regime remains available only to professional investors through a narrow set of distribution partners.
The launch caps a licensing process that took considerably longer than regulators originally planned. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority published its first discussion paper on stablecoins back in January 2022 and initially aimed to have a working regime in place by 2023 or 2024. Instead, the formal Stablecoins Ordinance only took effect in August 2025, licenses were granted in April 2026, and a live product did not appear until 16 months after the law took effect. The regulator received 36 applications but has approved only two: Anchorpoint and HSBC, both note-issuing banks that already print part of Hong Kong's physical currency alongside Bank of China (Hong Kong). Officials have said repeatedly that only a handful of licenses would be granted at the outset, describing the approach as deliberately cautious rather than a processing backlog.
Anchorpoint is not selling HKDAP directly to end users. Authorized distributors including OSL Group and HashKey handle conversion between the token and fiat currency for institutions and professional investors, meaning the exchanges, not the issuer, control the client relationship even though Anchorpoint holds the license and the underlying reserves. Anchorpoint CEO Dominic Maffei said the company's near-term focus is on "supporting the development of commercial applications that demonstrate the value of regulated tokenized money in real-world settings, including payments and settlement use cases," pointing to cross-border payments and tokenized real-world asset settlement as early target markets.
Hong Kong's capital requirements for stablecoin issuers are notably stricter than regional peers, requiring a minimum of roughly $3.2 million in paid-up capital plus full reserve backing in high-quality liquid assets, compared with Singapore's roughly $781,000 threshold. HSBC has said it plans to launch its own Hong Kong dollar stablecoin in the second half of 2026 and eventually integrate it into retail banking channels including its PayMe app, while Anchorpoint has indicated retail access for HKDAP could arrive by the end of the year depending on market conditions. For now, the first product to emerge from what regulators describe as Asia's most restrictive stablecoin regime remains available only to professional investors through a narrow set of distribution partners.