May 26, 2025
By Our Correspondent
With the launch of Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based settlement service, HSBC Holdings has advanced the city’s fintech development by enabling safe and efficient payments.
According to HSBC, traditional bank deposits can be converted into digital tokens on a blockchain network through its tokenized deposit program. According to Lewis Sun, global head of domestic and developing payments for global payments solutions at HSBC, payments made through the service could therefore be less expensive and time-consuming than those made through traditional banking systems.
According to HSBC, business clients would be able to move between HSBC Hong Kong wallets around-the-clock and make real-time payments in both Hong Kong and US dollars thanks to the tokenized deposit infrastructure.
According to the statement, the application will be made available in Asian and European markets in the second part of the year, with its current usage restricted to Hong Kong.
“When backed by regulated financial institutions, tokenized deposits can provide [companies] with a secure and completely compliant way to enhance cash management and payments,” Sun stated.
Hong Kong is a global financial hub dedicated to advancing the development of digital currency. This service sets a new benchmark for efficiency and innovation in digital money solutions for [companies].”
The first customer to use deposit tokenization to accomplish an instantaneous fund transfer was Ant International, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding.
In a second press release on Thursday, Ant International stated that the tokenized deposit service launch follows a successful pilot test between HSBC and Ant International on Ant’s blockchain-based Whale platform.
Ant claims that after the pilot test, HSBC incorporated the lessons learned from the collaborative innovation into its tokenized deposit service.
According to Ant International’s general manager of platform technology, Kelvin Li, tokenization serves as a link between blockchain and conventional banking.
“We aim to unlock more transparent, accessible, and efficient treasury management solutions for businesses worldwide through industry public-private collaborations and by working with leading partners,” he stated.
The first active project backed by the Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is HSBC’s tokenized deposit facility. Additionally, the bank is one of several financial institutions that have finished proof-of-concept use cases as part of the HKMA’s initiative to support the tokenization market.
HSBC and five other participants were given permission to test tokenized money in order to facilitate digital asset transactions when the HKMA announced a central bank digital currency testing regime in August. It moved Hong Kong one step closer to using blockchain technology for interbank transactions.
According to HSBC, the most recent transaction, which was started by Ant International via its global treasury management platform, enhanced its liquidity management’s efficiency, flexibility, and transparency.
According to HSBC, in the first phase, the tokenized deposit service will provide real-time transfers of US and Hong Kong dollars between corporate wallets owned by its corporate clients in Hong Kong, thereby supporting their treasury management.
In order to enable additional digital transfers and settlement capabilities, the bank announced that it would build new infrastructure using its network and technologies. In order to facilitate digital currency settlements and other tokenization scenarios, it will also keep looking into more use cases.
