Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong has become the first bank authorised to distribute HKDAP, a regulated Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorpoint Financial, expanding the token's rollout from specialist crypto channels into conventional banking.

The bank will initially work with eligible institutional clients, with early use cases spanning tokenised fund settlement, treasury management, and cross-border payments. In the fourth quarter, Standard Chartered plans to introduce HKDAP-based subscriptions and settlements for tokenised money-market funds together with local and international asset managers, and it is also exploring intragroup settlements across its banking network.

Until now, HKDAP's distribution had been limited to crypto-sector channels: HashKey Exchange and OSL were among the stablecoin's authorised distributors following its institutional beta launch earlier this month.

The development marks a further step in Hong Kong's effort to move regulated stablecoins from controlled pilots into financial-market infrastructure. HKDAP operates under the city's Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect on 1 August 2025 and requires HKMA licensing for anyone issuing Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoins in or from Hong Kong. The licensing regime followed an HKMA issuer sandbox launched in 2024, whose initial participants included the Standard Chartered–HKT–Animoca Brands consortium that now forms Anchorpoint. In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted the city's first two stablecoin issuer licences, to Anchorpoint and HSBC (PRESS RELEASE | The Hong Kong Monetary Authority Grants First Stablecoin Licenses to HSBC and AnchorPoint). Anchorpoint is a joint venture between Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands.

The significance extends beyond another stablecoin launch: a major international bank is now using its own institutional distribution network to bring regulated tokenised money into fund settlement, treasury and payments — areas where stablecoins could increasingly compete with traditional banking rails. Hong Kong's framework is part of a broader global shift toward regulated fiat-backed stablecoins, with the European Union's MiCA rules applying to stablecoin issuers since 2024 and the United States enacting the GENIUS Act in July 2025 to set federal standards for payment stablecoins. For HKDAP, the near-term milestones already on the calendar — the fourth-quarter money-market fund subscriptions and any progress on intragroup settlement — will indicate how deeply regulated tokenised money is embedding into conventional financial plumbing.

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