Hong Kong’s first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin went live on Wednesday. Almost nobody is allowed to hold it.

Anchorpoint Financial opened HKDAP to institutions, corporate clients and professional investors on Aug. 12. Retail buyers are not part of this phase.

Two Licences, 36 Applicants

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) took 36 applications before its window closed in September 2025. It approved two. HSBC holds one. Anchorpoint holds the other, licence FRS01.

Anchorpoint is a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong). HKT and Animoca Brands are its venture partners. HashKey Exchange and OSL Group handle distribution.

Beijing bars yuan-pegged stablecoins abroad. An HKD token is therefore the only kind Hong Kong can license. Both winners are building Hong Kong’s stablecoin race around the local dollar.

Why Retail Has to Wait

The city’s Stablecoins Ordinance sets a high bar. Issuers need HK$25 million (about $3.2 million) in paid-up capital. Reserves must sit apart from company money. Holders redeem at face value within one business day and earn no interest.

The same law limits who may sell these tokens to the public. Only licensed issuers, banks and regulated platforms qualify.

Anchorpoint is moving in stages. Retail access is expected around the end of 2026, though the firm has committed to no date. It has published no supply or volume figures since launch.

The Rails Retail Already Uses Keep Getting Cloned

Ordinary bank accounts remain the softer target. The HKMA flagged Chong Hing Bank, Chiyu Banking Corporation and OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) on Aug. 13 over fake websites and copied login screens.

Such alerts are routine, with more than 50 posted in two months last year. Hong Kong’s securities regulator banned one-time password logins at crypto platforms in July for the same reason.

A Dollar Token by Another Name

The wait may matter less than the pitch. Stablecoins are worth roughly $300 billion, and Tether alone holds about 61%. No non-dollar coin has ever scaled.

The Hong Kong dollar has also been pegged to the US dollar since 1983. Asia’s newest regulated stablecoin tracks the currency it was meant to answer.

Source: BeInCrypto