Vincent Chok on what bank-issued stablecoins mean for Hong Kong

Hong Kong's stablecoin regime has moved from a licensing framework to the point where a licensed bank is preparing to issue. HSBC has said it plans a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin for the 3.3 million users of its PayMe wallet, which would put regulated digital money inside an app much of the city already uses.

For an existing non-bank issuer, that raises an obvious question. Vincent Chok is chief executive and co-founder of First Digital, the Hong Kong-headquartered issuer of the fiat-backed stablecoin FDUSD. In written answers to Disrupts, he set out how he expects bank and non-bank issuers to coexist, what the city's payment infrastructure still needs, and how he would judge in a year whether the move from regulation to deployment has worked.

Chok does not read the arrival of bank issuers as a threat. "Bank-issued HKD stablecoins play an important role in bringing regulated digital money into the financial apps people already use. Banks have the advantage of trust, regulation and large established user bases," he said, pointing to HSBC's PayMe base as a way of making stablecoin payments accessible "without requiring users to set up a separate wallet or use an exchange".

Non-bank issuers, in his account, serve a different purpose. "Non-bank issuers can often move faster on innovation, developing new products and use cases as user needs evolve. This creates a broader range of ways for people and businesses to use stablecoins. Ultimately, I see these as complementary strengths rather than competing models. The opportunity is for both sides to work together and build an interoperable, well-rounded stablecoin environment that gives users more choice and utility."

The rails are already there

On what Hong Kong's payment infrastructure still needs, Chok's answer starts from what it already has. The Faster Payment System handled 868 million transactions worth around US$1.1 trillion in 2025, he said, instantly and at no cost to the user, and the iAM Smart digital identity scheme had passed 4.7 million registrations by mid-2026, connecting more than 1,300 government and private services. "The digital rails and the public willingness to use them are both there."

"The next step is making stablecoins the layer underneath rather than a standalone product," he said. "The value is not creating another way for someone to pay. It is what happens behind the screen: settlement that clears in seconds, treasury operations that do not stop over weekends, and reconciliation that no longer needs a whole finance team." Getting there, he added, means regulators, banks and non-bank issuers "staying in constant dialogue, because each one holds a piece the others need to create a well-functioning system".

Interoperability between bank-issued and non-bank stablecoins is, on his reading, largely solved at the technical level. "The digital rails exist, cross-blockchain connections are well developed, and infrastructure has matured to the point where it can carry retail volume without major issues." The harder part is commercial. "Building interoperability does not translate to adoption on its own. Users need to know what they are holding, where it can be used, and it has to feel familiar." That is why, he argues, stablecoins should sit inside the wallets and payment apps people already use rather than arrive as a new system.

He also wants the industry to build now for a new class of user. "With the rapid development of AI, we should also start building for AI agents now. These agents are a new class of users that have different requirements, and they are already starting to enter our financial markets." Innovation, he added, must still be balanced with regulation, with the goal a controlled and safe environment that does not impede it.

Where wallets and stablecoins meet

Digital wallets overtook cards in Hong Kong e-commerce last year. Chok sees that as relevant to stablecoins mainly because of what it says about habits. "People in Hong Kong are already comfortable holding a balance in an app, scanning a QR code, and paying without a physical card. That helps explain why bank-issued HKD stablecoins are being built into wallets people already use rather than asking consumers to download another app."

The stronger connection, he said, is further down the payment chain. "A consumer could pay through a wallet as they do today, while the merchant or payment provider settles using a regulated stablecoin, with the blockchain largely staying out of sight." Wallets make stablecoins easier to reach; stablecoins give payment providers another way to move and settle money, particularly across borders.

Asked which use case reaches scale first, he picked cross-border business settlement, citing operational friction, fragmented payment systems, limited banking hours, settlement delays and liquidity tied up while money moves between markets. "Stablecoins can address many of these issues by allowing businesses to move value 24/7, with near-instant settlement and fewer intermediaries." He cited figures showing 42 per cent of businesses already using stablecoins for cross-border payments, with reported average savings of 35 per cent on cross-border payment costs, though the source of those numbers was not given. Treasury management, he added, is "often overlooked": a mobile pool of liquidity can replace cash stranded in local accounts across several markets.

Well regulated but not well connected

The strongest argument against the framework delivering at scale, in Chok's view, is the risk of its own strictness. "The HKMA is being strategic, which is the right instinct. The risk of this approach is that we may end up with stablecoins that are well regulated but not well connected. The stricter the requirements, the harder it becomes for an issuer to operate a global infrastructure." A very strict framework suits domestic retail payments and tokenised investments, he said, "but they are not where the more disruptive innovations sit".

Other jurisdictions are writing their own rules, and issuers will go where those rules let them innovate. "Consumer protection has to come first, and Hong Kong is right not to trade it away. My take is that Hong Kong has left itself room to adjust, and it is yet to reach the ceiling."

Comparing Hong Kong with Singapore, the UAE and the EU under MiCA, he said all are working towards the same goal, with differences driven by consumer appetite, existing infrastructure and how well banked each population is. Hong Kong's edge, for him, is institutional depth. He cited the HKMA's EnsembleTX pilot, which brings HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China Hong Kong together with asset managers including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton to explore tokenised deposits and tokenised money market funds through the city's existing financial infrastructure. "For an issuer, being in Hong Kong means being close to the institutions needed to test how stablecoins can work within the financial system."

Twelve months from now, Chok would look for two signs. Mass retail adoption is the obvious one, though he doubts a year is long enough. The other is quieter. "When people stop noticing, and digital assets integrate into the back-end of financial systems, that would be a sign that the transition is successful. A merchant settling a payment will not need to care if a stablecoin is involved, and a treasurer moving money over the weekend would treat it as the norm. Digital asset technology succeeds when it disappears into the background."

HSBC's Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, issued under the licence granted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, is planned to reach PayMe users this year.