Hong Kong – HSBC has launched its first stablecoin, HSBC RedCoin (ticker: RCHKD), putting a regulated digital version of the Hong Kong dollar into the hands of everyday consumers. The coin went live on 23 October 2026 through PayMe by HSBC.
What RedCoin is
RedCoin is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and issued under a licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which HSBC’s Hong Kong bank received in April 2026. It is built on HSBC’s own technology and security infrastructure and meets the financial crime controls required under Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance. HSBC Digital Assets Custody provides safekeeping.
What users can do with it
More than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate a stablecoin wallet inside the app over the coming days. At launch, they can:
Launch promotions, including PayMe transaction discounts and RewardCash, are also on offer.
Why HSBC thinks it will catch on
HSBC’s own research points to convenience as the main driver. A June 2026 online survey of 1,060 HSBC customers aged 18 to 64 found that access through apps people already use, together with faster payment and settlement, ranked among the strongest reasons to adopt stablecoins. Just over half of respondents (53 per cent) also felt Hong Kong dollar stablecoins could improve the city’s economic competitiveness, particularly for round-the-clock payments, trade, tourism and cross-border commerce.
Before launch, HSBC ran staff pilots with nearly 100 users, testing the full journey from minting to wallet activation to live transfers.
What comes next
Later this year, HSBC plans to add stablecoin wallets to its HSBC HK Mobile Banking App. Customers will also be able to use RedCoin to subscribe to tokenised investment products, starting with a new share class of the bank’s long-running Hong Kong dollar money market fund. Beyond retail, the bank intends to extend RedCoin into wholesale, corporate and institutional use cases.
Maggie Ng, HSBC’s CEO for Hong Kong, said the shift of money, assets and information onto always-on, programmable networks gives the bank a chance to help customers adapt with practical, trusted products. John O’Neill, who leads Digital Assets and Currencies at HSBC, called the launch a beginning and said more products are on the way.
Building on existing digital assets work
RedCoin follows several years of HSBC activity in this space. The bank has taken part in the HKMA’s e-HKD+ Pilot Programme and Project Ensemble since 2022. In Hong Kong it already offers digital bonds for institutional investors through HSBC Orion, the HSBC Gold Token for retail customers, and the HSBC Tokenised Deposit Service for wholesale payments. Orion has supported more than US$8.3 billion in digitally native bond issuance globally since 2023. The Gold Token has recorded 390,000 trades worth US$2.5 billion since 2024, as of the end of August 2026.
RedCoin takes that groundwork into daily retail payments.
Re-disseminated by SINGFIN
