🇭🇰Anchorpoint Financial: HKMA-Licensed Stablecoin Issuer

Anchorpoint Financial is an HKMA-licensed stablecoin issuer established by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands and HKT. Licence FRS01 was issued on 10 April 2026; HSBC received FRS02 in the same first licensing round.

The company is preparing HKDAP, an HKD-linked stablecoin intended for settlement of tokenised assets, cross-border payments and trade finance. As of August 2026 public circulation had not begun. This page covers the licensing requirements, reserves, redemption, intended distribution and current launch status.

Key parameters of Anchorpoint Financial:

Licensing and shareholders

The story began long before the licence. The partners had been studying the issuance of an HKD stablecoin since early 2023, in July 2024 the trio entered the HKMA stablecoin sandbox, and in February 2025 they incorporated a separate company, Anchorpoint Financial Limited, for the future application. The largest shareholder is Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), one of the city's note-issuing banks that print physical HKD; HKT brings payment distribution and a subscriber base, Animoca Brands brings Web3 expertise. The partners' exact stakes have not been publicly disclosed; the company is led by CEO Dominic Maffei.

In the first licensing round the HKMA approved two of 36 applications. By the deadline of 30 September 2025 the HKMA had received 36 formal applications and the licences went to two — a first-round conversion rate of ≈5.6%. HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue had warned legislators as early as 2 February 2026 that the first licences would "definitely be few", and promised to issue them in March — the regulator delivered a few weeks late. Financial Secretary Paul Chan named the selection criteria at the same time: the quality of risk management, of reserves and of AML/CFT controls.

Participation in the sandbox did not guarantee a licence: its participants JD Coinlink (an entity of JD) and RD InnoTech did not receive licences in the first round. The HKMA had emphasised from the start that the sandbox remains a testing mechanism with no right to handle public money and guarantees nothing at the licensing stage. In the summer of 2025 Eddie Yue went so far as to advise companies without a clear use case to work with future issuers instead of filing their own applications — and urged investors to "stay calm" amid the flow of stablecoin news.

Products and pricing

Anchorpoint's product is the HKDAP stablecoin, the name standing for "HKD At Par": a coin with a hard peg to the Hong Kong dollar and redemption at par. The plan is phased issuance starting in the second quarter of 2026. On 14 May 2026 the company, together with the OSL platform, ran a full cycle on Ethereum mainnet: fiat routed into reserve assets through Standard Chartered's banking infrastructure, token issuance, transfers and full redemption of the entire test issue.

At the end of July 2026 the coin was still preparing for launch, according to Fintech News Hong Kong: The Standard wrote about a July start, while the company itself limited its comment to a formula of phased issuance with updates to follow. Distribution follows a B2B2C model: retail will get HKDAP through licensed VATP platforms, with OSL Group and HashKey Exchange among the named partners, and the issuer plans no direct sales to end users. The stated use cases are settlement of tokenised real-world assets (RWA), cross-border payments and trade finance; in time the HKT channel opens the coin a path into mass mobile payments and the telecom's merchant network.

The product has no public pricing before launch. The issuer's economics depend on permitted reserve income and any operational fees allowed under the regime. Reserves are held in high-quality liquid assets at 100% of the issue, segregated from the company's own funds, and the issuer's income comes from interest on those reserves: the more coins in circulation, the more "free" liabilities placed in HKD instruments. Paying interest to the holder is prohibited by the Stablecoins Ordinance, and redemption at par must be completed within one business day without unjustified fees or burdensome conditions.

The regulatory bar is set high: minimum paid-up capital of HK$25m, liquid capital from HK$3m plus a buffer covering 12 months of operating expenses, an independent audit of reserves, a white paper disclosing the coin's mechanics and HKMA approval of key personnel.

Competitive landscape

The second licensee, HSBC, is using a different distribution model: its own HKD coin will be built directly into PayMe and the mobile bank in the second half of 2026 — P2P transfers, merchant payments and subscription to tokenised investments. The bank's Hong Kong CEO Maggie Ng ties the project to the city's ambition to become a global digital asset hub; HSBC already has the retail base, so its coin starts straight in the mass segment.

The two licensees have different proposed product and distribution models: HSBC covers retail payments inside its own ecosystem, while Anchorpoint builds the infrastructure layer for exchanges, RWA settlement and cross-border flows. Both licensees lean on HKD note-issuing banks, and after the results were announced market participants publicly called on the HKMA to widen access beyond banking structures.

HKDAP and the proposed HSBC token differ from global USD stablecoins in currency, local supervision and rules for retail distribution: HKDAP has an HKD peg, full local supervision and legal access to Hong Kong retail, which is closed to unlicensed coins. In parallel the HKMA is running Project e-HKD+ — pilots of a digital Hong Kong dollar with priority on wholesale scenarios; regulated stablecoins occupy the private floor of the same digital money strategy.

Availability and limitations

HKDAP is intended for settlement inside Hong Kong's regulated stablecoin framework. The regime requires full reserve backing, segregation of reserves, independent verification and redemption at par within the prescribed period. These requirements reduce some issuer risks but do not eliminate operational, technology, counterparty or market risk.

Access is expected through licensed distributors including OSL and HashKey Exchange. Their KYC procedures, jurisdictional eligibility and fees will apply separately. As of August 2026 public circulation had not begun, so practical availability and cost can be assessed only after launch.

Corporate and operating structure

Anchorpoint illustrates one consortium structure for an HKMA stablecoin licence. Each participant closes their own layer: the bank brings prudential weight, reserve infrastructure and trust custody; the telecom brings mass distribution; the Web3 group brings technology and connections to the crypto market. The first-round outcome shows the importance of prudential resources, reserve management, AML controls and a credible distribution model; it does not establish that a banking shareholder is a formal requirement.

The application timeline shows the duration of incorporation, sandbox work and licensing preparation: ≈3 years passed from the start of the work in 2023 to the licence, including a year in the sandbox and a year of a separate legal entity with paid-up capital. The sandbox provided dialogue with the regulator but, as the JD Coinlink case showed, was incapable of guaranteeing any advantage in the selection — sandbox participation did not create priority, and the HKMA assessed the completed application independently.

The technology perimeter: HKDAP lives on public Ethereum mainnet, while the reserve and settlement layer sits on Standard Chartered's banking infrastructure. The May test covered the coin's whole life cycle, from routing fiat in to full redemption; OSL CEO Kevin Cui described the point of the integration with the formula that money should move as freely as information. Issuer economics depend on circulation, reserve yield, operating costs and distribution: at HKD rates the income from reserves covers costs only at meaningful issuance volumes, which makes the B2B2C model with HKT's channels and exchange distributors a way to build circulation quickly without constructing a retail arm.

Regulation and status

The regime: the Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656) was passed by LegCo on 21 May 2025 and has been in force since 1 August 2025; licensing and supervision are handled by the HKMA. Unlicensed issuance of fiat-referenced stablecoins and advertising of unlicensed coins are outlawed, only licensees' coins may be offered to retail, and falsely presenting oneself as a licensee is a criminal offence; incumbent players were given a six-month transition period.

The HKMA finalised the supervisory package by the end of July 2025: supervisory and AML/CFT guidelines plus explanatory notes on licensing and transitional provisions; applications for early consideration were accepted until 30 September 2025. Anchorpoint Financial Limited has held licence FRS01 since 10 April 2026 — the HKMA register kept under section 21 of the Stablecoins Ordinance lists only it and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (FRS02, same effective date); Eddie Yue describes the task of the regime as an "orderly operating environment" where innovative technology is combined with user protection and risk control.

The product status as of August 2026: HKDAP is pre-launch, the full cycle on Ethereum mainnet was tested on 14 May 2026, issuance is announced as phased and distribution will run through OSL and HashKey Exchange. There is no timeline for the next licensing rounds: the HKMA holds a line of openness with caution and links new licences to the results of the first launches.