Hong Kong plans to include stablecoins in the pilot trading of tokenized government debt
Hong Kong has expanded its tokenized settlement infrastructure to support 24/7 trading. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's monetary regulator is preparing to incorporate regulated stablecoins into a pilot program for government debt transactions.
- Hong Kong has upgraded to EnsembleTX to support 24/7 settlement for real-value tokenized transactions.
- The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has completed trial secondary market transactions involving tokenized foreign exchange fund notes.
- Regulated stablecoins will be included in subsequent settlement trials related to government debt.
- Since HSBC's stablecoin RedCoin was launched via PayMe on October 23, it has attracted 50,000 users.
- The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has also introduced new measures covering AI governance, quantum-resistant security, and cross-border payments.
According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the latest upgrade enables banks and their customers to settle transactions of real value at any time through EnsembleTX. This announcement was made on November 2 during the Hong Kong Fintech Week, where officials also introduced a number of initiatives covering digital finance, artificial intelligence, and payment services.
Regulatory authorities confirm that traders have completed trial transactions in the secondary market involving tokenized foreign exchange fund notes, and stablecoins will be included in subsequent tests.
Hong Kong will extend EnsembleTX to 24/7 settlement.
This latest development means that Project Ensemble has broken through the previous limitations on the settlement hours for participating financial institutions.
EnsembleTX Allows banks to use digital representations of currency to process tokenized transactions, thereby supporting payments related to blockchain-based financial assets.
Previously, participating institutions still relied on Hong Kong's existing settlement infrastructure in certain payment scenarios, which meant that transactions were still subject to the business hours of traditional banks.
The upgraded system can complete real-value settlements at any time of day, including during the closed periods of traditional financial markets.
Banks can utilize this infrastructure to transfer funds between different jurisdictions, manage tokenized investment portfolios, and process fund management transactions outside of normal business hours.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Hong Kong plans to introduce a continuous settlement mechanism using tokenized central bank money by the end of 2026.
The plan also includes support for tokenizing commercial bank deposits, as well as more applications involving wholesale central bank digital currencies.
Project Ensemble was initially launched in March 2024, with the aim of studying how tokenized assets and different forms of digital currencies operate within the financial system.
A sandbox was launched in August 2024 that allows banks to connect to its tokenized deposit platform for testing before real-value transactions begin.
In November 2025, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched EnsembleTX. As a pilot phase of this project, participating financial institutions were allowed to handle actual transactions.
Tokenized foreign exchange fund notes enter the secondary market trial
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority confirms that recognized traders have completed trial transactions involving tokenized foreign exchange fund notes.
Foreign Exchange Fund notes are short-term debt instruments issued by monetary regulatory authorities and are part of Hong Kong's financial infrastructure.
The latest experiment covers secondary market transactions, allowing participating traders to test how tokenized government debt is traded after issuance.
Officials stated that these tests will help to improve the efficiency of secondary market transactions as well as repurchase transactions (commonly referred to as repo transactions).
Under the repurchase arrangement, financial institutions will temporarily exchange securities for cash and agree to reverse this transaction under specific conditions.
Tokenization tools can record the transfer of ownership through blockchain systems, while the settlement infrastructure is responsible for the transfer of corresponding funds.
Regulatory authorities intend to expand the trials to include regulated stablecoins, but no specific start date has been announced yet.
Previous plans regarding tokenized assets also included allowing regulated stablecoins to be used for settling tokenized money market funds, as well as supporting more digital investment products.
Hong Kong has also explored wholesale digital currency trading for after-hours derivatives transactions in collaboration with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.
HSBC claims that after the launch of RedCoin, it attracted 50,000 users.
Meanwhile, HSBC reported that its recently launched Hong Kong dollar stablecoin RedCoin has been adopted by early customers.
During the Hong Kong Fintech Week, Group CEO Georges Elhedery stated that since its launch on October 23rd, the product has attracted 50,000 users.
This stablecoin is now available to users through HSBC's payment app PayMe. This app has over 3.3 million users in Hong Kong.
RedCoin supports transfers between qualified users, as well as payments at participating merchants; HSBC also plans to launch more banking and investment use cases.
This line indicates that their long-term goal is to expand the user base of stablecoins to several million people.
However, the reported 50,000 users do not indicate how many of them made duplicate transactions, nor do they reflect the total amount paid by RedCoin.
Currently, there are two licensed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong, namely HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial.
Previous reports on licensed stablecoin issuers mentioned that HSBC launched retail promotion through PayMe, while Anchorpoint was initially only available to certain institutional participants.
Both companies obtained stablecoin issuance licenses under the Hong Kong regulatory framework in April 2026.
HKMA introduces AI security and cross-border payment measures
In addition to tokenized settlement, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also announced the launch of Project SAGE, which is a program that covers the responsible use of AI agents in financial services.
Regulatory authorities have established an expert group and issued a discussion document to seek industry opinions on the governance issues of the AI system used by banks.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has also collaborated with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to launch a post-quantum cryptography toolkit to help banks prepare for future encryption risks.
This measure provides guidance for financial institutions to assess how quantum computing may impact existing security arrangements.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has also collaborated with the Digital Harbour to launch tConnect Launchpad, aiming to connect financial institutions, technology companies, and those engaged in digital asset businesses that develop tokenized applications.
In addition, Hong Kong's fast payment system is expected to be connected with UnionPay International by the end of 2026.
As planned, this connection will gradually allow users to make payments via QR codes, covering a network of over 100 million merchants in Hong Kong, mainland China, and more than 40 overseas markets.
