The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to bring regulated stablecoins into its trials of tokenized government debt, the central bank said, as it works to extend tokenized settlement to round-the-clock operation. Separately, HSBC said its RedCoin stablecoin has reached 50,000 users.
Regulated stablecoins join the debt trials
The HKMA has been testing tokenized government debt, and it now intends to use stablecoins that fall under its regulatory regime as part of those trials. The move ties two pieces of Hong Kong's digital asset work together: the tokenization of traditional government instruments and a supervised stablecoin sector.
Regulated stablecoins would give the trials a settlement asset that sits inside the HKMA's oversight, rather than relying on unregulated tokens. The authority hasn't said which stablecoins will be used or when the first transactions will take place.
Settlement moves toward 24/7
The HKMA is also working to extend tokenized settlement to 24/7 operation. Traditional settlement runs on banking hours and fixed cycles. Tokenized settlement can run continuously, and the HKMA wants its trials to reflect that.
Running around the clock changes the plumbing of a debt market. It means collateral and cash legs can move outside office hours, and it puts pressure on the systems that connect tokenized platforms to the existing financial infrastructure. The HKMA hasn't given a timeline for when 24/7 settlement will be live in the trials.
HSBC's RedCoin reaches 50,000 users
HSBC said its RedCoin stablecoin has reached 50,000 users. The figure gives a rare concrete measure of adoption for a bank-issued stablecoin in Hong Kong. HSBC didn't say what the users do with RedCoin or how much has been issued.
RedCoin sits alongside the HKMA's stablecoin regime, which requires issuers to meet reserve, redemption and disclosure rules. The 50,000-user mark is small next to the customer bases of Hong Kong's retail banks, but it's a sign that regulated stablecoins are moving past the pilot stage for at least one issuer.
What the HKMA hasn't spelled out
The central bank has outlined the direction but not the details. It hasn't named the stablecoins that will enter the debt trials, set a start date, or published the rules for how 24/7 settlement will work with the existing debt settlement systems.
Those gaps matter for the banks and platforms that would connect to the trials. They need to know which tokens count as regulated, how redemption works outside banking hours, and what happens if a settlement fails at 3 a.m.
Next steps
The HKMA's next move is to set out how the stablecoin leg of the debt trials will run and when 24/7 settlement will be switched on. HSBC, meanwhile, has a user number to build on but hasn't said how it plans to grow RedCoin beyond the 50,000 it has now.
