Anchorpoint's HKDAP, backed by Standard Chartered and Animoca, goes live via HashKey. First minting completed as HK stablecoin licensing regime takes shape. Citi sees $16B market potential.
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HashKey Exchange has become an authorized distributor for Anchorpoint Financial's Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP, marking the first regulated distribution channel for the token in Hong Kong's new licensing regime.
Anchorpoint, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands, received a stablecoin issuer license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority earlier this year. The companies announced Tuesday that the beta rollout lets eligible institutions and professional investors access HKDAP through HashKey. HashKey said it has already completed its first minting and redemption transaction with clients, including fiat on- and off-ramping.
HKDAP, short for "HKD At Par," is designed as tokenized money for payments and settlement. Anchorpoint plans to expand distribution and explore uses including cross-border payments, settlement and tokenized finance, the companies said. The joint venture was established in April 2025, two months after Standard Chartered and Animoca Brands announced plans to launch a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin.
The launch comes as Hong Kong pushes to become a digital asset hub under its stablecoin licensing framework. A Citi report from 2025 estimated that Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoins could reach $16 billion in circulation after the regime takes full effect. That would represent a meaningful slice of the global stablecoin market, though US dollar-pegged tokens still dominate by a wide margin.
For now, data on Hong Kong dollar stablecoin adoption remains sparse. The vast majority of the $220 billion stablecoin market is pegged to the US dollar, with USDC and USDT combined seeing roughly $3.8 trillion in adjusted transaction volume during the first quarter, according to Bernstein.
HashKey's addition as a distribution channel gives institutional clients a regulated on-ramp to a token backed by a licensed issuer with bank, telecom and gaming conglomerate support. The first completed minting transaction signals that the infrastructure for HK dollar stablecoins is live, though the broader market will depend on how quickly demand builds for a token that competes with the network effects of USDC and USDT.
Anchorpoint's joint venture structure – combining Standard Chartered's banking infrastructure, HKT's payments network and Animoca Brands' blockchain ecosystem – positions HKDAP for settlement use cases beyond simple crypto trading. The companies said they plan to expand distribution channels over time, though they did not name additional partners.
For traders tracking Hong Kong's regulatory developments, the HKDAP rollout is a concrete test of whether regulated stablecoins can attract institutional volume away from the dominant US dollar pairs. The Citi estimate of $16 billion in circulation is a target, not a forecast, and the actual pace will depend on how quickly Hong Kong-based institutions and professional investors adopt a local-currency token for payments and settlement.
As stablecoin compliance infrastructure matures, Mastercard's test of a single-audit framework with Borderless.xyz shows the broader push toward regulated stablecoin operations. Hong Kong's licensing regime, combined with the first distribution through HashKey, gives the market a clear example of how a regulated stablecoin can enter the ecosystem.
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