HSBC launches Hong Kong dollar stablecoin RedCoin for 3.3 million PayMe users

British bank HSBC on Oct. 23 launched HSBC RedCoin (ticker: RCHKD), a stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. Stablecoins are digital assets designed to hold a one-to-one value against a fiat currency. In a Hong Kong press release, the bank said RedCoin is available from that day on its payments app PayMe by HSBC. It is HSBC's first stablecoin and is licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

Activate a PayMe wallet to send money and pay merchants

HSBC said more than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate a stablecoin wallet in the app in the coming days. Two features are available at the start: instant peer-to-peer transfers of RedCoin to friends and family, and payments with RedCoin at more than 100,000 merchants that accept PayMe. To mark the launch, the bank is offering PayMe transaction discounts along with RewardCash.

HSBC said it worked closely with regulators and prospective users in recent months, and that staff pilots with nearly 100 users tested the full journey from minting and wallet activation to live transfers. HSBC Digital Assets Custody safekeeps RedCoin. When its licence was announced in April, the bank said every coin it issues would be fully backed at all times by high-quality, liquid assets held in segregated accounts. Later this year, HSBC plans to add stablecoin wallet functionality to the HSBC HK Mobile Banking App and let customers subscribe to tokenised investment products with RedCoin, including a soon-to-be-launched share class of its Hong Kong dollar money market fund.

"This is only the beginning. We will soon add more products, including expanding into wholesale corporate and institutional use cases."

John O'Neill, Managing Director, Digital Assets and Currencies, HSBC

Two licences out of 36 applicants, six months to launch

Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance took effect on Aug. 1, 2025, creating a licensing regime for issuers. Thirty-six entities applied by the first-round deadline of Sept. 30, 2025, and on April 10, 2026, the HKMA granted licences to only two of them: HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial. Anchorpoint is a joint venture of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), telecom operator HKT and Animoca Brands. HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said at the time that further licences would remain very limited.

Anchorpoint launched a beta version of its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP on Aug. 12 for institutions and professional investors. When HSBC revealed the RedCoin name on Sept. 30, it also released a survey of more than 1,000 customers in which 10% of respondents believed stablecoins pay interest. HSBC said interest is not a feature included in Hong Kong's current regulatory framework, and said it would run an education series on scam prevention and redemption across its apps, website and social media.

Singapore brings in Malaysia and Thailand the same day

Also on Oct. 23, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand had joined BLOOM, a cross-border digital money initiative, as policymaker members. BLOOM is a public-private initiative to build common approaches for exchanging and settling tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins across institutions and jurisdictions. Existing participants include Circle, Coinbase, J.P. Morgan and DBS, and new members include Ripple, Visa, Mastercard and the World Bank Group.

Upbit lists dollar, euro and yen coins, but no Hong Kong dollar

RedCoin launched as a payment tool inside PayMe and cannot be traded on Korean exchanges. As of Oct. 23, the fiat-pegged stablecoins in Upbit's Korean won market were eight dollar coins, including Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), PayPal USD (PYUSD), Ripple USD (RLUSD) and USD1, plus the euro coin EURC and the yen coin JPYC. There is no Hong Kong dollar coin.

At about 5:35 p.m. KST on Oct. 23, Tether and USD Coin each traded at 1,337 won on Upbit, EURC at 1,502 won and JPYC at 8.47 won. That put Tether about 0.9% above the won-dollar exchange rate of 1,324.95 won compiled by Coinyong at the same time. Over 24 hours on Upbit, Tether had the largest trading value at about 73.9 billion won, followed by USD Coin at about 1 billion won, JPYC at about 370 million won and EURC at about 6 million won.