Hong Kong Monetary Authority Shuts Down October Stablecoin License Speculation

Hong Kong’s monetary authority has pushed back on market speculation that a second batch of Hong Kong stablecoin licenses would arrive around National Day in early October.

HSBC and Anchorpoint Hold the First Two Slots, and That’s Deliberate

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) told Cailian on August 6, 2026 that it has “no comment” on such rumors and holds an “open yet cautious” stance on expanding its stablecoin issuer list.

This is a significant signal for investors tracking Asia’s digital asset race. Hong Kong passed the Stablecoins Ordinance in May 2025, with the law effective from August 1, 2025.

As CoinGape had earlier reported, Hong Kong introduced the licensing regime for stablecoin issuers in March 2026, drawing from a pool of 36 formal applicants.

In April 2026, the HKMA granted the first two Hong Kong stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered, HKT, and Animoca Brands.

Both plan HKD-referenced tokens targeting cross-border payments and institutional settlement.

Standard Chartered and HSBC had earlier joined the HKMA’s stablecoin sandbox, which helped them advance their regulatory readiness ahead of formal licensing.

The regulator is now focused squarely on getting those two live, and watching how they perform, before expanding the field.

HKMA said future decisions will weigh application quality, market demand, real-world use cases, and international regulatory trends. No “rush to scale” is on the table.

HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue had previously signaled a high bar from the start.

He noted that many early applications “lacked concrete details and feasible implementation plans” and failed to show risk awareness.

That discipline has carried into the post-licensing phase.

What This Means for Investors Watching Hong Kong’s Digital Asset Play

The HKMA’s measured approach is not a stumble. It reinforces Hong Kong’s strategy of building a high-trust, bank-grade stablecoin ecosystem, not flooding the market with issuers.

For institutional allocators, that means lower de-pegging risk and stronger AML controls around any HKD-backed token they touch.

The city has been consistent on this. Hong Kong introduced the LEAP framework, Legal clarity, Ecosystem expansion, Application development, and Professional talent, in mid-2025, signaling that its stablecoin regulatory regime would always prioritize quality over speed.

As CoinGape reported, the city’s stablecoin policies were designed to enable secure growth of real-world use cases, building a clear path for compliant HKD stablecoins.

For crypto-native applicants with lighter capital structures, however, the bar remains steep.

Traditional finance partnerships, like the HSBC and Standard Chartered model, hold a clear structural advantage under HKMA’s criteria.

The next real catalyst to watch is not the second batch announcement.

It is the first commercial HKD stablecoin issuance, and how quickly it finds use in cross-border payments, trade settlement, and tokenized RWA ecosystems.

Hong Kong is building its stablecoin regime the same way it built its financial center: slowly, selectively, and with the right partners.

Compare the top cloud mining platforms by contract terms and payout reliability.