Standard Chartered Becomes First Bank to Distribute Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin

Standard Chartered Becomes First Bank to Distribute Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin

Quick Read:

• Standard Chartered is the first bank to distribute a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin.
• The stablecoin, HKDAP, is issued by Anchorpoint Financial, in which Standard Chartered is a majority shareholder.
• New commercial use cases, fund subscriptions, settlements, cross-border payments, are rolling out over the coming month.
• HSBC, Hong Kong’s other licensed issuer, plans its own stablecoin launch later in 2026.

Standard Chartered has made history as the first bank to distribute a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, deepening the city’s push to become a serious player in digital finance.

The London-headquartered lender, which manages around $850 billion in assets, announced on Monday that it will begin helping eligible institutional clients and partners integrate HKDAP, the Hong Kong dollar-pegged token issued by Anchorpoint Financial. Standard Chartered isn’t just a distributor here, it’s also a majority shareholder in Anchorpoint, giving the bank a front-row seat in shaping how this new Hong Kong dollar stablecoin gets used in practice.

According to the announcement, Standard Chartered plans to roll out several new commercial applications for HKDAP over the coming weeks. These include market fund subscriptions, settlement processes with asset managers, intragroup settlements across the bank’s global network, and cross-border payments, all areas where stablecoins promise faster, cheaper transactions than traditional banking rails.

Anchorpoint Financial isn’t new to this. The firm kicked off a limited institutional rollout of HKDAP back on August 12, just four months after it secured one of Hong Kong’s first two stablecoin issuer licenses. That early phase focused squarely on institutional payments and settlement, with plans to expand access channels and cross-border functionality as adoption grows.

Standard Chartered’s move puts it ahead of HSBC, the other bank holding one of Hong Kong’s coveted stablecoin licenses. HSBC is reportedly preparing to launch its own stablecoin in the second half of 2026, with speculation that it could distribute the token through PayMe, its popular payments app boasting 3.3 million users.

The broader Hong Kong stablecoin space is heating up fast. Kraken’s parent company, Payward, recently made waves with a $600 million deal to acquire stablecoin payments firm Reap Technologies, signaling that both traditional banks and crypto-native firms see serious opportunity in the region’s regulatory framework.

With Standard Chartered now leading distribution of a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, the race among Hong Kong’s licensed issuers to capture institutional demand is officially underway, and it’s one worth watching closely.