HKDAP on Solana: Anchorpoint takes its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin public-chain
Anchorpoint, the licensed stablecoin issuer backed by Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands, plans native minting and redemption of its HKDAP token on Solana under a new collaboration with the Solana Foundation.
Hong Kong's licensed stablecoins are starting to leave the walled garden. HKDAP on Solana is the next step for Anchorpoint, the venture owned by Standard Chartered's Hong Kong bank, telecom group HKT and Animoca Brands, which said it will work with the Solana Foundation to mint and redeem its Hong Kong dollar token directly on that network.
What happened
Fintech News Hong Kong reported the plan on November 2. Anchorpoint received its issuer licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April, and HKDAP is currently in beta for institutional and professional users on Ethereum. Neither side gave a launch date for the Solana version.
The stated targets are retail payments, trading of tokenised real-world assets and other high-volume uses where near-instant settlement matters. Anchorpoint plans to distribute HKDAP and products built on it through corporate partners, consumer apps and the wallets and developers in Solana's ecosystem. According to the two firms, Solana hosts about $4.9 billion in tokenised real-world assets and more than 835,000 holders of them.
The Solana Foundation will also join Anchorpoint's Tokenised Money Adoption Programme, a scheme that started in September and signed PwC Hong Kong as its first strategic partner, Fintech News Hong Kong said. Bitcoin.com News added that the issuer wants HKDAP to strengthen the Hong Kong dollar's appeal in international markets and support the city as a treasury and capital-markets hub.
Why it matters
Most bank-backed stablecoins so far have lived on a single chain with tight access controls. Choosing a high-throughput public network signals that Anchorpoint wants reach beyond its own customer base. Chief executive Dominic Maffei said the firm is building towards an open network designed to connect ecosystems rather than fragment them, and Bitcoin.com read his comments as a hint that more networks may follow.
Competition in Hong Kong dollar tokens is real. HSBC's Redcoin went to retail through the PayMe wallet, as our HSBC Redcoin stablecoin report explained, and has 3.3 million potential users there. Anchorpoint's answer is distribution through third-party apps and wallets rather than one in-house app.
The move also fits a regional pattern of regulated issuers pairing with tokenised fund products. Our story on the BlackRock yen stablecoin project in Japan showed the same link between digital cash and on-chain money-market funds.
Risks remain. HKDAP is still limited to institutional and professional users in beta, and Bitcoin.com noted that Chinese tech groups such as Ant Group and JD.com paused their own Hong Kong stablecoin plans after Beijing intervened.
For Solana, HKDAP on Solana would add a licensed Hong Kong dollar token to a network that already hosts about $4.9 billion of tokenised real-world assets.
What's next
Watch for a launch date, the first wallets and exchanges to list the Solana version, and whether HKMA conditions differ by chain. Fintech News Hong Kong's report on the plan has the partners' statements.
If HKDAP on Solana goes live with retail access, it would be one of the first bank-led, regulator-licensed fiat tokens issued natively on a major public chain outside Ethereum.
The Solana Foundation's Asia-Pacific head, Lu Yin, said the aim is to make Hong Kong dollar value more accessible across real-world use cases.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.