Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) will distribute HKDAP, the first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, for tokenized fund settlement and cross-border payments.
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Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) said Monday it became the first bank authorized to distribute HKDAP, the city's first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin.
The token, short for “HKD At Par,” is issued by Anchorpoint Financial and redeems one-for-one for Hong Kong dollars. Anchorpoint is a joint venture set up in February 2025 by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT, and Animoca Brands. Standard Chartered is the largest shareholder. Its trustee arm also holds the reserve assets backing the token.
HKDAP was previously available only through crypto exchanges like HashKey and OSL. Now Standard Chartered will offer it directly to institutional and corporate clients. The bank plans to use HKDAP for settling tokenized money market funds starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, for internal bank transfers, and for cross-border payments.
Mary Huen, the CEO for Hong Kong at Standard Chartered, said the bank is “pleased to be the first bank distributor to provide eligible clients with secure access” to the stablecoin. Anchorpoint’s CEO, Dominic Maffei, called the bank’s involvement a “milestone” that gives the token a “trusted channel” to grow.
The stablecoin runs on the Ethereum mainnet. Anchorpoint’s transparency data from August 19 showed 522,000 tokens in circulation and 658,160 in transaction volume during Beta Access. The company has said it could open retail access as early as the end of 2026.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued its first two stablecoin licenses in April 2026: FRS01 to Anchorpoint and FRS02 to HSBC. HSBC has not launched its own Hong Kong dollar stablecoin yet but plans to do so in the second half of 2026. It could integrate the token with its PayMe app, which has 3.3 million users, giving it a wider retail reach.
Standard Chartered and Anchorpoint are focusing on corporate and institutional users first. HSBC appears to be betting on everyday consumers through its existing payment products. The two banks are taking different paths into Hong Kong’s regulated stablecoin market.
For asset managers and multinational companies, the bank distribution channel means they can settle on blockchain without leaving their existing banking relationships. The goal is to speed up large business transactions: a fund unit can move instantly on a blockchain, but the cash payment still has to go through slower legacy systems. HKDAP is meant to be the digital cash that moves at the same speed, letting both sides of a trade settle together.
Standard Chartered also wants to test HKDAP for moving money across its own global network, which could accelerate cash and liquidity management outside normal banking hours. Cross-border payments for corporate clients are another use case on the roadmap.
The development adds to the growing infrastructure for tokenized equities and stablecoin settlement. With a major bank distributing a regulated stablecoin, the line between traditional finance and blockchain-based settlement continues to blur.
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