July 11, 2025

By Our Correspondent

According to a Yicai report, Hong Kong is answering licensing requests from over 40 businesses in advance of its new stablecoin law.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will start accepting formal applications on August 1st, marking the implementation of the legislation under the Stablecoin Bill.

JD.com, Ant Group, Standard Chartered, and Circle are among the companies that have made their intention to apply public. According to Yicai, a number of legal companies that help clients prepare said they oversee continuing sessions for other clients who are still completing their application materials.

Alex Zuo, the head of Cobo’s payments division, said that large mainland Chinese enterprises make up the majority of applications. Many small and medium-sized enterprises, he said, are not eligible to apply since they are only using the topic for short-term publicity.

Internet corporations, logistics companies operating abroad, and digital finance providers are among the entities getting ready to apply. Numerous companies are hiring for engineering and blockchain compliance positions. Stablecoin issuance, settlement infrastructure, and multi-address wallet utilities to enable fiat conversion are among the use cases being examined.

Companies dedicated to creating stablecoin-based services are becoming increasingly distinct from those making public declarations with no operational or technical support, according to Zuo.

Stablecoins are currency extensions, not a replacement for the existing monetary system, according to Qiao Yide, vice president of the Shanghai Development Research Foundation.

According to him, “they are still tied to sovereign currencies.” He went on to say that total transaction costs could approach 1% when exchange fees, on-chain processing, and compliance checks are taken into consideration.

One example of how financial authorities can structure regulated issuance without completely embracing crypto-native methods is the stablecoin procedure in Hong Kong. The volume of licensing is still low, but qualified institutions’ demand is still rising.

A number of countries are also developing their own stablecoin frameworks; the EU, Japan, and Singapore are pursuing licensing regulations that concentrate on reserve assets and payments.

Different strategies for incorporating private digital currencies into official oversight are represented by each model.

The outcome in Hong Kong could influence how Asian financial hubs strike a balance between business scope, compliance standards, and reserve backing.