Customary Chartered CEO Invoice Winters mentioned on Monday that Hong Kong’s push for tokenized cash and stablecoins might lay the foundations for a brand new period of digital commerce funds.
Talking at Hong Kong FinTech Week, Winters pointed to the continuing trials of tokenized deposits and the creation of a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin as potential breakthroughs in cross-border commerce.
“I am unable to say we have absolutely grasped the digital nature of those flows but, however we actually will,” Winters mentioned. “With improvements such because the tokenization of deposits being led in Hong Kong, the creation of a Hong Kong greenback stablecoin makes it a really fascinating forex of trade, or medium of trade for worldwide commerce.”
He added that Hong Kong’s “experimentation with digital property as a worldwide commerce mechanism will easy the evolution to a brand new worldwide commerce order on absolutely digital phrases.”
His feedback got here almost a 12 months after Customary Chartered’s Hong Kong unit, Animoca Manufacturers and HKT introduced a three way partnership to use for a license from the Hong Kong Financial Authority to subject Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoins underneath town’s new regulatory regime. The trio is considered one of 5 entities collaborating within the HKMA’s stablecoin issuer sandbox, which was launched final 12 months.
At this time, throughout Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong’s market regulator Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) introduced that regionally licensed exchanges can be allowed entry to world liquidity by means of a shared order ebook.
The adjustments, detailed in a brand new round, will allow Hong Kong platforms to combine world liquidity swimming pools underneath what the SFC calls the ASPIRe roadmap for digital property.
By permitting a “shared order ebook,” the SFC goals to slim worth spreads, enhance market effectivity and enhance worth discovery, however warns of elevated operational and settlement dangers.
In a round, the SFC mentioned platforms should keep pre-funding, delivery-to-payment settlements, uniform market surveillance throughout jurisdictions, and compensation reserves to guard buyer property.
