HSBC began making its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, HSBC RedCoin (RCHKD), available through PayMe on Friday, Oct. 23, adding a digital currency option to a consumer payments app used by more than 3.3 million people.
Wallet activation will be staggered over the coming days, HSBC said. Once enabled, users will be able to send RedCoin to one another instantly and pay at more than 100,000 merchants through PayMe. HSBC also announced transaction discounts and RewardCash offers, without specifying their amounts or duration.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) register identifies The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited as a licensed stablecoin issuer under licence FRS02, effective April 10, 2026. Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance took effect Aug. 1, 2025, making a licence necessary for issuing fiat-referenced stablecoins.
The announcements describe different starting audiences for the two licensed issuers. Anchorpoint Financial Limited began a phase-one beta rollout of its HKD At Par stablecoin, HKDAP, on Aug. 12 for institutional distributors and professional investors. The company said wider retail adoption could be explored as early as the end of 2026, depending on market conditions.
Before RedCoin’s launch, HSBC said a pilot with nearly 100 participants tested the process from issuing tokens and activating wallets to making live transfers. The bank plans to add access through the HSBC HK Mobile Banking App later in 2026 and let customers subscribe to tokenized investments using RedCoin, including a new share class of an HKD money market fund.
HSBC says RedCoin wallets are separate from bank accounts and their holdings are not protected by Hong Kong’s Deposit Protection Scheme. The bank said PayMe wallet activation would continue over the coming days; it did not give individual activation dates.
