Breaking News: HSBC and Standard Chartered’s JV Grab First Stablecoin Licenses in Hong Kong!

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Ah, the illustrious Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), that paragon of financial wisdom, has bestowed upon us the inaugural stablecoin licenses, and lo! The champions of this grand lottery are none other than the venerable Standard Chartered’s joint venture and the ever-so-glamorous HSBC.

HKMA Finally Decides to Release Stablecoin Licenses After a Dramatic Delay

As revealed on the hallowed grounds of HKMA’s website, two illustrious entities now bask in the glory of being registered stablecoin issuers in the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong: Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. One can almost hear the fanfare!

Our fair city first unveiled its ambitious stablecoin bill-aptly named the Stablecoins Ordinance-back in the balmy days of August 2025. This grand proclamation birthed a licensing regime for those audacious enough to issue fiat-tied cryptocurrencies in this glittering locale. Naturally, any brave soul wishing to dive into this crypto carnival must first charm the pants off the HKMA with a shiny license.

Not ones to miss an opportunity, major players flocked like moths to a flame, eager to apply for their golden ticket. Amongst them were the esteemed HSBC and the enterprising Anchorpoint Financial Limited-a delightful consortium sprouted from the minds of Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom. A veritable buffet of ambition, if you will! In total, the HKMA was inundated with applications from no less than 36 eager entities. Yet, in a twist worthy of a Shakespearean drama, Eddie Yue, the chief executive of this financial opera, declared back in February that only a “very small number” of licenses would emerge victorious in the initial wave.

Yue, with all the flair of a fortune teller, predicted that these licenses would make their grand entrance in March. However, as is often the case with great expectations, March came and went without a hint of a license, leading one to wonder if the HKMA had decided to take a scenic detour. But fear not, dear reader, for on this fine day of April 10th, the first batch has finally graced us with its presence.

With merely two licenses in this first round-one each for Standard Chartered’s JV and HSBC-we can indeed conclude that Mr. Yue set our expectations just right. These banking titans now possess a veritable head start in the race for stablecoins, leaving other hopefuls to ponder their fate as they watch from the sidelines.

Hong Kong’s leap into the stablecoin realm represents but one shining example of the positive regulatory environment that fiat-tied tokens have enjoyed globally over the past year. A triumphant high note for this sector arrived in the form of the GENIUS Act, signed with great fanfare by none other than former United States President Donald Trump last year. Truly, the world has never been so chaotic and yet so delightfully regulatory!

With such momentum propelling the sector forward, stablecoins have managed to float serenely amidst the tumultuous seas of the wider digital assets market. Data from DefiLlama reveals that these charming fiat companions have maintained their combined market cap at all-time highs since Q4 2025, while Bitcoin has seen a rather pedestrian decline of over 42% during the same period. How quaint!

While the stablecoin market cap is nothing to scoff at, it is amusingly dominated by just two assets tethered to the almighty US Dollar: USDT and USDC. Rumblings of a euro-pegged token emerging from a consortium of prominent European banks could very well stir the pot, but we shall see how the grand tapestry of this landscape unfolds, won’t we?

Bitcoin Price

As we pen this delightful narrative, Bitcoin is wading in the waters around $72,200, enjoying a modest rise of over 8% in the past week. A true spectacle of resilience!

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2026-04-11 07:41