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Anchorpoint Financial Limited completed a full lifecycle transfer test of HKDAP, its Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin, on the Ethereum mainnet on May 21.
Hong Kong’s First Officially Approved Stablecoin Completes Testing on Ethereum
According to HKET, Anchorpoint Financial, which has obtained a stablecoin issuer license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, together with OSL Group and Futu Holdings-backed licensed trading… pic.twitter.com/SIGinckWYK
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 21, 2026
The test covered the complete operational sequence: converting fiat funding into reserve assets, minting HKDAP tokens, transferring them between wallets on Ethereum, and fully redeeming all tokens following the transfers.
Standard Chartered Bank provided the banking infrastructure and institutional trust services throughout. All HKDAP tokens were fully redeemed upon test completion, confirming the end-to-end redemption mechanism under live network conditions.
Anchorpoint targets a phased official issuance by the end of Q2 2026, making HKDAP the first regulated HKD stablecoin to operate on the Ethereum mainnet under a formal licensing regime.
Anchorpoint Financial is a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT), and Animoca Brands. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted Anchorpoint one of only two stablecoin issuer licenses awarded under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which came into force on Aug. 1, 2025. The only other license holder is HSBC. More than 40 institutions applied.
OSL Group and Anchorpoint completed HKDAP test transfers on Ethereum Mainnet, marking a key step toward secure fiat-to-digital gateways and real-world regulated stablecoin use cases in Hong Kong.
As Kevin Cui, Executive Director and CEO of OSL Group, highlighted, this aligns… pic.twitter.com/9wOS3DAWpz
— OSL (@osldotcom) May 14, 2026
The mainnet test ran through two licensed distribution platforms: OSL Group, Hong Kong’s listed digital asset exchange, on the institutional side, and PantherTrade, a licensed trading platform backed by Futu Holdings, on the retail side. The dual-channel structure reflects the B2B2C architecture Anchorpoint built from the outset:
The three partners have operated within the HKMA’s stablecoin issuer sandbox since July 2024. The mainnet lifecycle test on May 21 represents 23 months of progress from sandbox entry to live Ethereum settlement.
The test sequenced four steps that the HKMA’s Stablecoins Ordinance requires an issuer to demonstrate operationally. Fiat funding enters and is converted into reserve assets, establishing the 1:1 HKD backing mandated by the Ordinance. Tokens mint against those reserves. They transfer between wallets on the Ethereum mainnet. They redeem back to fiat, with the Ordinance requiring redemption within one business day.
Completing this sequence on the Ethereum mainnet rather than the testnet carries specific weight. Testnet deployments can obscure latency, gas cost variability, and cross-system interoperability issues that only surface under live network conditions. A successful mainnet lifecycle test with full token redemption removes the primary technical execution risk before phased issuance begins.
Standard Chartered’s banking infrastructure, processing the reserve conversion and redemption legs under live conditions, confirms that traditional banking rails and Ethereum settlement operate as a single, connected system rather than two siloed processes.
HKDAP’s Ethereum mainnet deployment is the fifth regulated institutional stablecoin product to reach the network in May 2026.
BlackRock filed for OnChain shares of its $7-billion BSTBL money market fund on Ethereum on May 8. J.P. Morgan filed JLTXX on Ethereum on May 12. Fidelity International launched FILQ on Ethereum on May 13. The Bank of England announced on May 1 that it is replacing individual holding limits with aggregate issuance guardrails ahead of the June draft rules.
HKDAP closes May as the fifth institution bringing regulated stablecoin infrastructure live on Ethereum in three weeks.
Anchorpoint’s licensee approval explicitly named AI agents as a primary use case. Anchorpoint designed HKDAP as a settlement currency for autonomous AI agents requiring a programmable, instantaneous, and regulated medium of exchange to transact across the internet without human intermediation at each step.
HKDAP’s HKD peg, backed by Hong Kong dollar reserves and indirectly linked to the US dollar through Hong Kong’s currency board arrangement, provides AI agents operating in Asian markets with a regulated settlement currency without direct exposure to US regulation.
For agents transacting across jurisdictions where the distribution of USDC (USDC) or USDt (USDT) is subject to regulatory constraints, a compliant HKD-backed alternative on Ethereum’s shared infrastructure reduces the compliance surface area without altering the settlement rails.
The HKMA Stablecoins Ordinance requires issuers to hold 1:1 fiat reserves, guarantee redemption within one business day, comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) protocols, and obtain explicit regulatory approval before issuance. Anchorpoint’s mainnet test ran all four requirements simultaneously under live conditions. The full redemption of all HKDAP tokens confirms that the redemption guarantee is technically achievable on the Ethereum mainnet before the phased launch window opens.
Hong Kong’s two-license outcome from more than 40 applicants produced the most selective stablecoin licensing result any major jurisdiction has published. The HKMA designed that selectivity to prioritize institutional-grade operators. HKDAP reaching the Ethereum mainnet before the end of Q2 2026 is the operational result. The next milestone is the phased issuance announcement, which Anchorpoint has not yet dated beyond Q2.
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