According to reports, a joint venture led by HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank is expected to become one of the first authorized stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has not yet confirmed the list of any successful applicants. Standard Chartered declined to comment, and HSBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, the number of licenses and the timeline have not been finalized and may still change, but sources indicate that a possible date is March 24.
If the news is accurate, a spokesperson for global firm Icon.Partners told Cointelegraph that Hong Kong's strategic choice of issuing banks for the first stablecoin licenses represents a significant advancement in legal engineering.
Icon.Partners stated, “It bypasses the trust gap of native cryptocurrency issuers by utilizing institutions that already support the Hong Kong dollar.”