Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint leaves retail stablecoin timing open

What happened

Anchorpoint, the Hong Kong stablecoin venture backed by Standard Chartered, says it will move cautiously before letting ordinary consumers use its Hong Kong dollar token, and it declined to repeat an earlier suggestion that retail access could come by the end of 2026. Chief executive Dominic Maffei told a Friday press conference that the company intended to take a prudent approach, according to the South China Morning Post, as reported by Cointelegraph and crypto.news.

The remarks landed the same day HSBC began putting its Hong Kong dollar-backed RedCoin in front of PayMe users, roughly 3.3 million people. The bank's rollout is phased: customers can switch on wallets, send value to other users and pay merchants that have signed up to accept the token.

Anchorpoint's institutional product went live in August, giving eligible corporate customers and professional investors access to payments, conversion between fiat and the token, and settlement involving tokenised assets. The token, HKDAP, runs on Ethereum. Bringing it to retail is a different matter, Maffei said, because a public blockchain stablecoin raises a long list of considerations.

He said the priority was a durable market rather than a fast one. "We believe it's important to build the market out in a long-term, sustainable manner," he said, adding that rushing a launch "does not make sense." Customer education and the readiness of the venture's distribution network have been cited as prerequisites.

Why it matters

Hong Kong's regulated stablecoin sector is moving from licences to actual consumer products, and the two first licensed issuers are taking contrasting routes. HSBC is distributing through an app millions of people already use, while Anchorpoint is building a business-to-business-to-consumer model in which licensed intermediaries handle custody, fiat conversion and customer-facing payment services. How quickly the second route reaches households will shape how competitive Hong Kong's regulated token market is against alternatives, and how far the city's pitch as a digital-asset hub translates into everyday payments. Cross-border flows sit at the centre of that pitch, with Maffei pointing to round-the-clock settlement, lower transaction costs and interoperability between systems as potential advantages.

What the data shows

HKDAP is designed to hold a one-to-one value against the Hong Kong dollar and to be backed by eligible reserve assets under local rules. Its smart contracts reject transfers to addresses that have not completed verification, a compliance control that allows the issuer to operate on a public chain without abandoning oversight. Access today is limited to eligible corporate clients and professional investors. Anchorpoint's published FAQs still describe a full launch as possibly arriving by the end of 2026, subject to issuance, distribution, custody and other supporting infrastructure being ready, but no firm date for individual customers has been announced. In September the company introduced a Tokenised Money Adoption Programme aimed at education, research and discussion of blockchain-based money.

Background

Anchorpoint grew out of a partnership announced in February 2025 between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands and telecoms group HKT, following the trio's participation in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's stablecoin issuer sandbox from July 2024. Animoca's role is to supply blockchain expertise and an industry network, and to help develop uses for the token across Web3. Anchorpoint and HSBC received the city's first stablecoin issuer licences in April 2026, after the Stablecoins Ordinance took effect in August 2025. Anchorpoint's initial distribution arrangements included HashKey Exchange, which completed an issuance and redemption transaction at the institutional launch, and the venture ran an Ethereum mainnet transfer trial with OSL Group and PantherTrade in May.

What to watch

Partners and customers will be watching for a firm retail date and for the payment corridors Maffei referenced. He said the goal is to connect Hong Kong with other markets, citing earlier work in the United Arab Emirates and promising to disclose further links when they are ready. Also worth tracking is the pace at which Anchorpoint signs up distributors, since the consumer experience will depend on those intermediaries rather than on the issuer itself, and whether HSBC's early start with RedCoin prompts rivals to accelerate their own consumer plans.

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