Hong Kong's First Regulated Stablecoin: Standard Chartered's HKDAP Goes Live
On 12 August 2026, Anchorpoint Financial — a joint venture of Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) — launched the beta phase of HKDAP, the first Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin issued under the city's new regulatory regime. The rollout through licensed exchanges HashKey and OSL marks the first live issuance of a *regulated* stablecoin in Hong Kong, barely four months after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) granted the city's first two stablecoin issuer licences.
The name is literal: HKDAP stands for "HKD At Par", signalling a 1:1 peg to the Hong Kong dollar and a deliberate emphasis on stability and settlement rather than yield. The token launched on the Ethereum mainnet, with institutions, corporate users, and professional investors the first to gain access.
A Regulated First for Asia's Financial Hub
Hong Kong awarded its first two stablecoin issuer licences in April 2026 — one to Anchorpoint, the other to HSBC. But a licence is only the starting line. What distinguishes HKDAP's debut is that it is the first to actually issue under that framework, turning a regulatory blueprint into a functioning, compliant asset.
The HKMA's rules are unusually strict by global standards. Issuers must be able to identify every stablecoin holder, unless they can demonstrate to the regulator's satisfaction that alternative risk-mitigation measures are effective. That is a higher compliance bar than most jurisdictions — and a key reason Anchorpoint is sequencing its rollout, starting with institutions before any retail push.
Why it matters: Hong Kong is deliberately positioning itself as a regulated on-ramp between the dollar-based stablecoin economy and the Chinese mainland's digital yuan ambitions. A compliant, bank-backed HKD stablecoin gives the city a credible, domestically-anchored instrument for cross-border settlement at a time when the global stablecoin market sits near $290 billion.
The B2B2C Model and the Road to Retail
Anchorpoint uses a "B2B2C" distribution model, meaning it will rely on licensed distributors — such as HashKey and OSL — to reach end users, rather than servicing retail customers directly. During the beta phase, only institutions, corporates, and professional investors can hold HKDAP.
Retail adoption could follow as early as the end of 2026, subject to market conditions and regulatory approval. The venture's shareholders give it a head start: Animoca Brands brings a web3-native user base and its Moca Network digital identity solution, while HKT — Hong Kong's dominant telecom operator — offers reach into a mass consumer channel. That combination of banking rails, telecom distribution, and web3 infrastructure is exactly the recipe the HKMA has been trying to encourage.
Target Use Cases: Payments and Tokenised Securities
Anchorpoint has signalled two initial priorities for HKDAP:
- Cross-border payments: a Hong Kong-dollar instrument that settles 24/7, on-chain, without the friction of correspondent banking corridors.
- Tokenised securities settlement: an on-chain cash leg for Hong Kong's rapidly growing tokenised asset market, letting institutions settle digital bonds and funds against a compliant, bank-backed stablecoin.
The second use case matters strategically. As tokenised real-world assets climb toward $38 billion globally, the missing piece has long been a trusted, regulated on-chain settlement asset. A bank-issued HKD stablecoin gives Hong Kong's tokenisation ecosystem precisely that missing leg.
Where HKDAP Fits in the Global Race
HKDAP's launch lands amid a broader reordering of the stablecoin landscape. The United States is still bedding in its GENIUS Act framework, the EU's MiCA regime has created a euro-denominated stablecoin market, and Asian jurisdictions — Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and now Hong Kong — are competing to attract regulated issuance.
What makes Hong Kong distinctive is its duality: a fully convertible, freely-floating currency pegged to the US dollar, sitting inside a country pushing a state-issued CBDC. A regulated HKD stablecoin is the private-sector counterweight — and, potentially, the bridge — to the digital yuan. Whether HKDAP can cross from institutional proof-of-concept to genuine retail adoption will be one of the more closely watched experiments in the stablecoin industry over the next twelve months.