HSBC takes its first stablecoin to 3.3 million PayMe users in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong dollar coin is issued, held in custody and distributed by HSBC itself, and starts with payments between users and at shops before moving into tokenized funds
- Issuer: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings, under stablecoin issuer license FRS02
- Safekeeping: HSBC Digital Assets Custody, the bank’s own custody business, provides safekeeping for RedCoin
- Survey: 53% of respondents to an online survey of 1,060 HSBC customers in June 2026, commissioned by HSBC, believe Hong Kong dollar stablecoins could strengthen economic competitiveness
- Gold Token: 390,000 trades by the end of August 2026, according to HSBC
Merchants on PayMe can be paid in a stablecoin without bringing a crypto exchange or a separate wallet provider into their payment chain. A coin redeemable at the issuing bank carries that bank’s counterparty risk, not a non-bank issuer’s. In Hong Kong dollars, two bank-backed tokens are set to compete for the same treasury and settlement flows: HSBC’s and Anchorpoint’s.
“We will soon add more products, including expanding into wholesale corporate and institutional use cases.”John O’Neill, managing director, digital assets and currencies, HSBC
HSBC launched HSBC RedCoin (ticker RCHKD), its first stablecoin, on PayMe by HSBC on 23 October. More than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate a stablecoin wallet in the app in the coming days, the bank said, and use it to send money to other users and to pay at more than 100,000 merchants.
The launch follows a staff pilot with nearly 100 users that tested the process from minting and wallet activation to live transfers. Later this year HSBC plans to add the wallet to its HSBC HK Mobile Banking App and to let customers subscribe to tokenized investment products with RedCoin, including a new share class of its long-running Hong Kong dollar money market fund.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted its first two stablecoin issuer licenses on 10 April, to HSBC’s Hong Kong bank and to Anchorpoint Financial. Anchorpoint, which Standard Chartered leads, has offered its own Hong Kong dollar token, HKDAP, to a small group of institutional clients since August, CoinDesk reported.
RedCoin joins a set of digital-asset products HSBC already runs. Its Orion platform has enabled the issuance of more than $8.3bn (£6.2bn) of digitally native bonds worldwide since 2023, and its Gold Token for retail customers has recorded $2.5bn (£1.9bn) of traded value since 2024, according to the bank. In Hong Kong it also offers a tokenized deposit service for wholesale payments.
Sources
- HSBC, “HSBC RedCoin launches today”, press release, 23 October 2026. https://www.about.hsbc.com.hk/news-and-media/hsbc-redcoin-launches-today
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority, “Granting of stablecoin issuer licences”, press release, 10 April 2026. https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/04/20260410-4/
- CoinDesk, “HSBC rolls out its first stablecoin to over 3 million everyday app users”, Francisco Rodrigues, 23 October 2026. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/23/hsbc-rolls-out-its-first-stablecoin-to-over-3-million-everyday-app-users
- European Central Bank, euro reference exchange rates (USD and GBP), 23 October 2026. https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/EXR/D.USD+GBP.EUR.SP00.A?startPeriod=2026-10-23&endPeriod=2026-10-23&format=csvdata
