Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba, has filed a trademark application for "ANTCOIN" in Hong Kong, indicating potential plans to enter the cryptocurrency market. The filing was submitted in June 2025 and covers a wide range of financial services, including stablecoin issuance, digital asset custody, payments, lending, foreign exchange, and blockchain-based settlement systems.
The trademark became publicly known in October 2025, just before Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing is scheduled to speak at Hong Kong FinTech Week. Jing will appear alongside Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services Christopher Hui and Primavera Capital’s Fred Hu, at an event with a crypto-heavy agenda. This timing suggests Ant Group may announce further details about its crypto strategy soon.
This move follows Ant Group’s exploration of Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime, which took effect in August 2025. Notably, the filing comes weeks after Beijing reportedly blocked stablecoin initiatives by Ant Group and JD.com in mainland China, underscoring the regulatory divergence between mainland China’s strict rules and Hong Kong’s more permissive approach to digital assets.
Ant Group has prior blockchain experience through subsidiaries like Zan, which provides Web3 infrastructure services, and AntChain, which has a strong presence in China. With hundreds of millions of users on its Alipay platform, Ant Group could leverage its existing payment network to integrate blockchain solutions, potentially driving mainstream adoption.
While the trademark does not confirm a token launch, it establishes legal protection for the ANTCOIN brand across financial services. The company has not issued public statements on specific plans, but industry observers, including Coin Bureau and Wu Blockchain, have highlighted the filing as a significant step toward crypto expansion.
BTC
HYPE