Standard Chartered opened its tokenized deposits service to corporate and institutional clients in Hong Kong on 2 November, enabling blockchain-based bank balances to move between participating banks at any hour. The launch coincided with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) upgrading its EnsembleTX platform to round-the-clock settlement in tokenized central bank money, closing the overnight gap that previously left receiving banks exposed after fixed RTGS hours.
The service targets corporate treasuries, banks, investment platforms and digital asset firms. Clients can send tokenized deposits in real time to counterparties at other EnsembleTX banks, build automated payment workflows and move cash between entities after normal banking cut-offs. Standard Chartered built the service on its own blockchain infrastructure with support from the HKMA’s Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology, though the underlying ledger technology and pricing details have not been disclosed.
China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade have already executed live tokenized deposit transactions and settled tokenized money market funds through EnsembleTX. The bank did not reveal transaction volumes, settlement times or expansion timetables. Fireblocks, an institutional crypto custody and infrastructure provider, will embed Standard Chartered’s tokenized deposit services inside its platform, giving the bank access to Fireblocks’ client base. HashKey Group, a licensed Hong Kong digital asset operator, has also joined, though its first services remain unannounced.
Mary Huen, Standard Chartered’s chief executive for Hong Kong, Greater China and North Asia, described the launch as a step past the experimental stage. HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue called the upgrade a shift toward commercial use, while Securities and Futures Commission head Julia Leung highlighted better liquidity and risk management for investors. The move lets treasury teams shrink out-of-hours cash buffers and supports secondary trading of tokenized funds on licensed platforms, while reducing reliance on privately issued stablecoins for weekend blockchain payments.
Since the HKMA launched EnsembleTX in November 2025, the number of tokenized deposit banks has grown from seven to twelve, and industry participants from thirteen to twenty. HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and ICBC (Asia) are among the other banks on the platform, with BlackRock and Ant International among participating firms. Standard Chartered previously rolled out a tokenized deposit solution for Ant International in December 2025; this launch opens the product to a much wider client base and adds cross-bank settlement. The platform is currently scheduled to run through 2026, leaving about two months in the planned pilot window before regulators decide its 2027 status.
