Frequently asked questions

A stablecoin is a type of digital asset that is designed to maintain a stable value, usually on a one-for-one basis relative to the price of certain assets (typically fiat currencies such as USD, HKD, etc), backed by a basket of financial assets or instruments. Currently, there are a wide variety of stablecoins existing globally, which may or may not be regulated and have varying levels of transparency and risk management standards.

Anchorpoint Financial Limited (“Anchorpoint”) is one of the first entities being granted a stablecoin issuer licence (licence number FRS01) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, under the Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656), allowing Anchorpoint to issue regulated, fiat-referenced stablecoins for public use.

Anchorpoint is a Hong Kong-incorporated company and a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (“SCBHK”). It was established as a joint venture between SCBHK, HKT and Animoca Brands, which also jointly participated in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Stablecoin Issuer Sandbox in 2024.

HKDAP (“HKD At Par”) is the HKD-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorpoint with a par value of HK$1.00 each that operates on supported public blockchain networks. Issued under Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s oversight, HKDAP is backed by a pool of high-quality, highly liquid reserves, as stipulated by the Stablecoins Ordinance and could encompass one or more of the asset types permissible under HKMA’s guideline, the value of which is required to be at least 100% of the par value of all HKDAP in circulation.

HKDAP is designed as an open, general-purpose settlement and payment instrument natively compatible with tokenised infrastructure, with the comfort that it’s redeemable 1:1 for HKD while offering users the benefits of enhanced efficiency, programmability and traceability compared to existing financial rails.

Generally, HKDAP can be obtained, held, and used by all types of stakeholders – ranging from financial institutions, corporates, small-medium enterprises, merchants, and individuals – provided that they do not violate any of the customary requirements in the Terms:
• For example, certain jurisdictions prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, or stablecoins by its citizens or residents – in which case HKDAP’s Authorised Distributors will not permit access to HKDAP for users from these jurisdictions.

We will open up eligibility and access to HKDAP along with our launch phases:
• Beta access (live): corporates and Professional Investors (PIs) only
• Full launch (post-Beta): expand to cover retail individuals

No, HKDAP is NOT securities or speculative investment tool – it is not a yield-bearing product, and it does not provide any capital gains for its holders.

HKDAP is akin to ‘digital cash’ as a bearer instrument, and its value is strictly pegged to fiat HKD currency on a 1:1 basis for stability when used as the settlement unit across tokenised and traditional finance.

Since being granted a stablecoin issuer licence in April 2026, Anchorpoint has been working closely with regulators and partners to prepare for HKDAP’s phased launch, which will begin with the Beta Access that has gone live, followed by Full Launch targeted as early as end-2026 (subject to the collective readiness to support seamless and reliable mass adoption of stablecoins – across issuance, distribution and other infrastructure such as custody).

During Beta Access stage, select authorised distributors will enable its non-retail users to access and convert HKDAP. This allows distributors and adoption partners to ensure their system, operational and product readiness.

After Full Launch, all user types, including retail, can access, hold and use HKDAP and HKDAP-enabled products or services through our Authorised Distributors and ecosystem partners.

During Beta Access phase, HKDAP is only available on Ethereum mainnet: 0x87622385F960fcCB3121d6D0A9513bd1D9Bed6cA

For end-users (i.e. individuals, corporates and most institutions) – you can safely access HKDAP and convert between fiat currency via any of our Authorised Distributors (the full list of Authorised Distributors will be announced at full launch). Each Authorised Distributor will enable access via their own platform/customer interface.

For certain regulated financial institutions or licensed businesses with large transaction volumes or settlement needs – you may consider becoming an Authorised Distributor with direct HKDAP clearing access with Anchorpoint. Please refer to the section below for more information about Authorised Distributors.

Only Authorised Distributors have direct access and account relationship with Anchorpoint. For all other user types including individuals, corporates and most institutions – You can access HKDAP via an active account with any one of the Authorised Distributors (with a duly completed account opening process as required by your service provider).

As a minimum requirement to potentially be an authorised distributor – you must be an institution with the requisite regulatory licenses (requirements vary subject to your entity’s registered jurisdiction) and able to fully complete the due diligence and onboarding process as required by Anchorpoint.

It is possible to hold HKDAP in your own digital asset or token wallets, depending on whether your choice of service providers allow withdrawal of coins from their platform (i.e. so called “coin-out”) – the availability of and the required procedures for “coin-out” request could vary, users should contact their service providers for relevant details.

Typically, to enable withdrawal to (or depositing from) your own wallet for any type of digital assets, you will be required by your service providers to complete wallet ownership verification and whitelisting procedures. You will be required by the authorised distributors to do the same (if they permit any “coin-out” feature), in order to verify your wallet address to use HKDAP directly.

Yes, it is possible to transfer HKDAP between your wallets, provided that these wallet addresses have completed verification process for HKDAP with at least one of our authorised distributors (doesn’t need to be the same one), for example:

Your Wallet 1 (verified by Distributor A) and Wallet 2 (verified by Distributor B) can transfer HKDAP between them.

The transfer would be rejected by the blockchain protocol automatically due to the user protection and compliance controls embedded in HKDAP’s smart contracts.

As of now, there is no unified “equivalence mechanism” globally regarding how each jurisdiction might treat or recognise stablecoins (or digital assets) regulated by other jurisdictions. This varies by geography, and foreign users should seek professional legal opinion for their own jurisdiction.

Anchorpoint will continue to assess and potentially engage licensed, regulated overseas authorised distributors (in compliance with any applicable domestic laws and regulations). We also engage in dialogue with overseas regulators from time to time in an effort to improve international awareness (and recognition) of Hong Kong’s regulated stablecoins and its robust regulatory framework.

In Anchorpoint’s B2B2C model, authorised distributors play a critical role in providing users (i.e. individuals, corporates and most institutions) with access to HKDAP, supporting HKDAP ecosystem development and helping maintain the integrity of the HKDAP ecosystem.  

Authorised distributors will form the foundation of the broader regulated digital assets ecosystem in Hong Kong and beyond, and they are expected to be trusted access points in the market: 

• Maintaining customer-facing channels (e.g. mobile app, web app, email/phone order, etc) for their registered users to access and convert HKDAP 

• Providing supporting infrastructure or ancillary services (e.g. custody, fiat conversion, product tokenisation, etc) that facilitate the use and adoption of HKDAP

• Utilising their established KYC/AML controls and measures to screen, detect and escalate non-compliant or fraudulent use of regulated stablecoins 

• amongst other requirements 

To better support authorised distributors in performing their role as trusted access points for the HKDAP ecosystem, Anchorpoint typically provide them with the following resources: 

• Direct clearing account with Anchorpoint to mint or redeem HKDAP at par value 

• Authorisation to co-manage HKDAP’s smart contract whitelist 

• Dedicated support coverage and joint go-to-market initiatives 

• and other service/support if applicable 

If you are interested in becoming authorised distributors, you can learn more about the minimum requirements, engagement process and reach-out channel below. 

Interested parties are expected to meet certain minimum criteria across a few aspects to be considered as authorised distributors, first and foremost having appropriate licenses. 

For Hong Kong, per the Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656), you must possess any one of the following licenses: 

• Authorised Institutions, regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) 

• Stored Value Facilities, regulated by the HKMA 

• Licensed for Type 1 regulated activity, regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) 

• Virtual Asset Trading Platforms, regulated by SFC 

For non-Hong Kong markets, we evaluate eligible licenses and jurisdictions on a case-by-case basis, but generally you are expected to possess a relevant license (e.g. banking, exchange, VASP, payment, etc) regulated by a commonly recognised jurisdiction. 

Included below is a summary of the end-to-end intake process, which on average takes around 8 weeks (estimated timeline for indicative purposes only – actual timing subject to completeness of due diligence information, commercial suitability, relevant regulatory processes, amongst other factors). 

1. Initial engagement: introductory discussions to understand your business and operational readiness, after receiving an inbound indication of interests 

2. Preliminary evaluation: information regarding your planned use cases and roadmap as a distributor might be requested for evaluation 

3. Due diligence: you would be required to complete our full onboarding and due diligence processes, including potential on-site meetings and visits  

4. Implementation: you will be required to first complete a series of test transactions before we proceed to granting you live account access; if applicable, we might arrange workshop sessions to go through operational and compliance requirements with your staff 

5. Documentation: review and execution of all applicable legal documents 

6. Co-marketing and go-to-market: Collaborate on launch and engagement plans, including content and communications, marketing and strategic initiatives to develop new use cases 

If you believe your organisation meets the minimum requirements to be evaluated as a potential authorised distributor, you may contact Anchorpoint through our website contact form. 

• Select: Category (Collaboration) > Sub-category (Becoming an Authorised Distributor) 

You should only include supplementary information that is available in the public domain, or not sensitive or confidential. Our team might reach out to request additional information and follow-up discussions. 

Anchorpoint is onboarding and activating authorised distributors on a rolling basis as part of our phased launch approach. Since announcing the launch of Beta Access, the following authorised distributors have enabled live access to HKDAP (listed in alphabetical order): 

• Finloop (website) 

• HashKey (website) 

• OSL (website) 

• Standard Chartered Hong Kong (website)

• Yunfeng Financial (website)

This will be updated to reflect the latest list of authorised distributors who have enabled live access to HKDAP during Beta Access. 

Full list of authorised distributors and ecosystem partners will be available on our website as we approach Full Launch later this year.