Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint is leaving the timeline for a retail launch of its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP uncertain, even as rival HSBC began rolling out its RedCoin stablecoin to approximately 3.3 million PayMe users on October 23.
At a Friday press conference covered by the South China Morning Post on October 26, Anchorpoint CEO Dominic Maffei said the company would take a cautious approach to bringing regulated digital money into everyday payments. While Anchorpoint had previously pointed to the end of 2026 as a possible retail timeline, Maffei declined to confirm that target.
“This is a public blockchain stablecoin, so applying this to retail, a lot of considerations need to be made,” Maffei said. He added that building the market in a “long-term, sustainable manner” was more important than rushing the launch.
Anchorpoint’s HKDAP is designed to maintain a one-to-one value against the Hong Kong dollar and is backed by eligible reserve assets under the city’s regulatory requirements. Its institutional beta currently operates on Ethereum, with access restricted to eligible corporate customers and professional investors. Smart contracts reject transfers to unverified addresses, preserving compliance controls on public infrastructure.
The company’s business-to-business-to-consumer model relies on authorized distributors to provide custody, fiat conversion, and customer-facing payment services. Maffei described the planned network as an “open and inclusive ecosystem” and highlighted cross-border payments, round-the-clock settlement, lower transaction costs, and interoperability as key advantages.
Anchorpoint began its institutional HKDAP rollout in August after being established by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands, and HKT. It was among the first licensed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong, receiving approval in April 2026 following the Stablecoins Ordinance that took effect in August 2025. Early distribution partners included HashKey Exchange, OSL Group, and PantherTrade.
HSBC’s RedCoin is being introduced through the bank’s existing PayMe application, giving users the ability to activate wallets, transfer money, and pay merchants. Anchorpoint has not announced a firm date for making HKDAP available to individual retail customers.
