Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) has become the first bank authorised to distribute HKDAP, the Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorpoint Financial. The bank is targeting institutional clients rather than retail crypto users, engaging partners on payments, settlement and treasury use cases, with tokenised fund settlement services planned for Q4 2026.
Standard Chartered Joins the Distribution Layer
Standard Chartered announced the move on August 24, saying it is already engaging eligible institutional clients and partners about integrating HKDAP into payments, settlement and treasury operations. HKDAP, short for HKD At Par, is issued by Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands.
Standard Chartered is Anchorpoint's largest shareholder, but the roles differ. Anchorpoint holds the stablecoin issuer licence, while Standard Chartered is now the first bank to join HKDAP as an initial authorised distributor, giving eligible clients a regulated banking channel to use the token commercially. Stablecoins have traditionally grown around crypto exchanges and specialist custodians, so a major international bank entering distribution creates a more familiar access point for companies wary of relying entirely on crypto-native infrastructure.
Institutional Uses Take Priority Over Retail
Standard Chartered identified three initial uses for HKDAP: tokenised money market fund subscriptions and settlement, internal corporate settlement and liquidity management, and cross-border payments. The bank plans to introduce HKDAP-based subscriptions and settlements for tokenised money market funds during the fourth quarter of 2026, working with international and Hong Kong asset managers. It also intends to test intragroup settlement across its own network.
Large multinational companies regularly move liquidity between subsidiaries and jurisdictions, and traditional transfers can involve cut-off times and multiple reconciliation steps. A regulated stablecoin that moves on-chain around the clock could compress parts of that workflow, though the real test will be whether companies find enough practical advantages to change existing treasury processes.
Hong Kong's Regulated Stablecoin Market Goes Live
HKDAP is one of the first products to emerge from Hong Kong's regulated stablecoin framework. The territory's Stablecoins Ordinance took effect on August 1, 2025, and in April 2026 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted the first issuer licences to Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC. Anchorpoint then began the first phase of the HKDAP rollout on August 12.
Access currently remains limited mainly to institutional distributors and professional investors, and authorised distributors can convert between HKDAP and fiat currency and integrate it into commercial services. Anchorpoint has said it could broaden access toward retail users as early as the end of 2026, depending on market conditions.
Banks as Infrastructure, Not Competitors
The largest stablecoins remain overwhelmingly tied to the U.S. dollar, with adoption driven mainly by trading and dollar access. Hong Kong is testing a different structure: regulated local-currency stablecoins connected directly to licensed banks. If that model works, banks may not need to compete with stablecoin networks from outside — they could instead become part of the infrastructure linking traditional accounts, corporate treasuries and tokenised assets.
Standard Chartered's planned Q4 fund-settlement services will offer the first real test of whether HKDAP can move beyond demonstration transactions into repeatable institutional workflows.
Source: Crypto Daily
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