Hong Kong’s regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin took its first commercial step on 12 August 2026, when Anchorpoint’s HKDAP, short for “HKD At Par” - became mintable and redeemable through two licensed distributors, HashKey Exchange and OSL. Both firms describe the rollout as “HKDAP Beta Access,” open in this initial phase to eligible institutions and professional investors rather than the retail public.
The launch is a commercial milestone rather than a new regulatory one. It sits on top of a framework that has been building for more than a year. Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance came into operation on 1 August 2025, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) granted its first stablecoin issuer licences on 10 April 2026, two of them, to Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC). What changed on 12 August is distribution: the token is now actually issuable and redeemable through regulated venues.
Who is behind HKDAP
Anchorpoint is a joint venture established in February 2025 by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands, and is a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong). Standard Chartered signalled its HKDAP plan when the licence was granted in April, describing a phased rollout starting in the second quarter of 2026. HSBC holds an equal issuer licence granted the same day, a reminder that Anchorpoint is one of two licensed issuers rather than the sole one.
How the token goes to market
On the distribution side, HashKey Exchange said it had “successfully completed its first HKDAP minting and redemption transaction with eligible clients,” including fiat on- and off-ramp capabilities, and joins as “a key authorised distributor.” OSL, operating through OSL HK — which it describes as the first licensed digital asset exchange in Hong Kong — said it is “one of the first authorised distributors,” providing on- and off-ramp, exchange, trading and settlement between fiat and HKDAP, with an initial focus on tokenised funds, trade finance and cross-border payments.
What this is — and what it is not
One nuance is worth flagging. There is no HKMA or SFC press release marking the 12 August go live. Stablecoin issuer licensing is an HKMA function, and the government’s primary documents cover the regime’s commencement (August 2025) and the licence grant (April 2026), not the commercial launch, which reached the market through the two distributors’ own releases. Wider access channels and use cases are expected to follow “as operational readiness and market demand evolve,” in HashKey’s words; reports of a retail rollout later in 2026 are attributed to Anchorpoint but are not stated in the official launch releases.
For compliance and treasury teams, the significance is practical rather than symbolic: a fully licensed, HKD-referenced stablecoin can now be issued and redeemed through regulated Hong Kong venues, with on and off-ramp, settlement and redemption handled inside the licensing perimeter, the first real world test of whether Hong Kong’s issuer-plus-distributor model works end to end.
