What is Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance?

The Stablecoins Ordinance is Hong Kong's licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers. Passed on 21 May 2025 and in force since 1 August 2025, it requires anyone issuing a fiat-referenced stablecoin in Hong Kong, or issuing a Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoin anywhere, to hold a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Licensees must hold HK$25 million in paid-up capital, back tokens with 100% high-quality reserves, and redeem at par within one business day.

Who holds Hong Kong stablecoin licenses?

As of July 2026, two issuers. On 10 April 2026 the HKMA granted the first licenses under the Ordinance to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands. Both licenses took effect the same day, and the HKMA maintains a public register of licensed issuers.

What are the penalties for issuing stablecoins in Hong Kong without a license?

Unlicensed issuance of a regulated stablecoin is a criminal offense. The Ordinance provides for fines of up to HK$5 million and up to seven years' imprisonment for the most serious offenses, with ongoing daily fines for continuing breaches. The HKMA has also warned the public against schemes that misrepresent themselves as licensed, and publishes the official register so counterparties can verify a license claim.

Why did banks win the first Hong Kong stablecoin licenses?

The regime's capital, reserve, and redemption requirements favor institutions that already run regulated balance sheets and treasury operations. HSBC is one of Hong Kong's note-issuing banks, and Anchorpoint is anchored by Standard Chartered's Hong Kong bank alongside telecom and technology partners. The HKMA reportedly assessed dozens of applications and signaled the first round would be small, so institutional readiness mattered more than product novelty.

What does the Ordinance mean for cross-border payments in Asia?

It creates a regulated Hong Kong dollar-referenced settlement asset with bank-grade issuers behind it, in one of Asia's main trade and treasury hubs. For institutions moving value between Asia, Europe, and the Americas, it adds a licensed regional option alongside MiCA-authorized tokens in the EU and GENIUS Act issuers in the US, and makes coin selection a per-corridor compliance decision.

Regulation

Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance, explained

What Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance requires, who holds the first licenses, and what the regime signals for Asia's settlement corridors.

Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance is the licensing law that governs who may issue a fiat-referenced stablecoin in Hong Kong, and it is one of the strictest regimes now in force anywhere. Passed by the Legislative Council on 21 May 2025 and in force since 1 August 2025, it took just over eight months from commencement to the first licenses: on 10 April 2026 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority licensed HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial as the territory’s first regulated stablecoin issuers.

What the Ordinance requires

The rules concentrate on three things: who may issue, what backs the token, and how holders get out.

Licensing. Issuing a fiat-referenced stablecoin in Hong Kong, or a Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoin anywhere in the world, requires an HKMA license. Marketing an unlicensed stablecoin to the Hong Kong public is also restricted.
Capital. Licensees need paid-up capital of at least HK$25 million.
Reserves. Tokens must be backed 100% by high-quality, liquid reserve assets, segregated from the issuer’s own funds, with the reserve portfolio matching the reference currency.
Redemption. Holders are entitled to redeem at par, and redemption requests must be processed within one business day, without unreasonable fees or conditions.
Enforcement. Unlicensed issuance is a criminal offense, with fines up to HK$5 million and up to seven years’ imprisonment at the top end.

The design goal is the same one that runs through the EU’s MiCA and the US GENIUS Act: force the token to be worth what it claims, and put a supervised institution on the hook for it. Hong Kong’s one-business-day redemption requirement is among the tightest of the major regimes.

The first licensees

The HKMA’s 10 April 2026 announcement named two issuers, both effective immediately:

Licensee	Who is behind it	Status
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)	HSBC Group; a Hong Kong note-issuing bank	Licensed 10 Apr 2026; launch reported for H2 2026
Anchorpoint Financial	JV of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands	Licensed 10 Apr 2026; phased issuance reported from Q2 2026

Two details matter. First, both licensees are bank-anchored: the regime’s economics and obligations favor institutions that already run regulated treasuries, and reporting around the awards suggested the HKMA assessed dozens of applications and deliberately kept the first round small. Second, the initial focus is the Hong Kong dollar. That makes the first wave of licensed issuance a regional settlement instrument rather than another entrant in the US dollar stablecoin market, where USDT and USDC dominate.

HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue framed the intent plainly: an “orderly operating environment for stablecoin issuers to apply innovative technologies while ensuring robust user protection and effective risk management.”

The timeline so far

Date	Event
21 May 2025	Stablecoins Ordinance passed by the Legislative Council
1 Aug 2025	Ordinance in force; licensing regime opens
10 Apr 2026	First licenses granted to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial
From Q2 2026	Reported phased issuance by Anchorpoint; HSBC launch reported for H2 2026

What institutions should do

For banks, payment providers, exchanges, platforms, and enterprises with Asia flows, the practical points are these.

Treat Hong Kong as a live, licensed corridor option. A regulated HKD settlement asset issued by HSBC or a Standard Chartered-anchored venture is a different counterparty proposition from an offshore token. Treasury and payments teams routing Asia corridors should track what the licensees actually launch, and on which networks.

Verify licenses, not press releases. The HKMA maintains a public register of licensed issuers and has explicitly warned about schemes misrepresenting their status. Counterparty onboarding should check the register.

Plan for a multi-regime map. Hong Kong now sits alongside MiCA in the EU, the GENIUS Act in the US, and Singapore’s pending framework. Which token is compliant depends on where the payment settles, and the answer differs corridor by corridor. The full picture is in our stablecoin regulation map.

Where Frame fits

Frame is the settlement layer for global finance: one integration to orchestrate payments at scale across fiat rails, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits, with compliance enforced on every transaction and settlement in seconds instead of days.

Regimes like Hong Kong’s are exactly why rail-neutrality matters. A licensed HKD stablecoin is a strong instrument for some corridors and irrelevant for others, and the same is true of MiCA-authorized tokens in Europe and GENIUS-regulated tokens in the US. Frame is neutral across rail types and coin-neutral within the stablecoin rail, so the choice of instrument becomes a policy: Frame’s Rules Engine evaluates every transaction against the policies that govern it, including which settlement asset a given corridor permits, and a transfer that cannot satisfy those policies does not settle. As licensed regional stablecoins multiply, that turns regulatory fragmentation from a blocker into a routing decision.

See how a rail-neutral settlement layer works: the Frame Blueprint.

Common questions

What is Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance?: The Stablecoins Ordinance is Hong Kong's licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers. Passed on 21 May 2025 and in force since 1 August 2025, it requires anyone issuing a fiat-referenced stablecoin in Hong Kong, or issuing a Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoin anywhere, to hold a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Licensees must hold HK$25 million in paid-up capital, back tokens with 100% high-quality reserves, and redeem at par within one business day.
Who holds Hong Kong stablecoin licenses?: As of July 2026, two issuers. On 10 April 2026 the HKMA granted the first licenses under the Ordinance to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands. Both licenses took effect the same day, and the HKMA maintains a public register of licensed issuers.
What are the penalties for issuing stablecoins in Hong Kong without a license?: Unlicensed issuance of a regulated stablecoin is a criminal offense. The Ordinance provides for fines of up to HK$5 million and up to seven years' imprisonment for the most serious offenses, with ongoing daily fines for continuing breaches. The HKMA has also warned the public against schemes that misrepresent themselves as licensed, and publishes the official register so counterparties can verify a license claim.
Why did banks win the first Hong Kong stablecoin licenses?: The regime's capital, reserve, and redemption requirements favor institutions that already run regulated balance sheets and treasury operations. HSBC is one of Hong Kong's note-issuing banks, and Anchorpoint is anchored by Standard Chartered's Hong Kong bank alongside telecom and technology partners. The HKMA reportedly assessed dozens of applications and signaled the first round would be small, so institutional readiness mattered more than product novelty.
What does the Ordinance mean for cross-border payments in Asia?: It creates a regulated Hong Kong dollar-referenced settlement asset with bank-grade issuers behind it, in one of Asia's main trade and treasury hubs. For institutions moving value between Asia, Europe, and the Americas, it adds a licensed regional option alongside MiCA-authorized tokens in the EU and GENIUS Act issuers in the US, and makes coin selection a per-corridor compliance decision.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-07-16