Markets · Stablecoins
HSBC offers its first stablecoin to 3.3 million PayMe users
The Hong Kong dollar token became available on PayMe on Oct. 23, HSBC said, six months after the bank became one of two licensed stablecoin issuers on the HKMA's register. Wallet activation rolls out over the coming days.
HSBC launched its first stablecoin on Oct. 23. HSBC RedCoin (ticker RCHKD), a Hong Kong dollar token, is "available from today" on the bank's PayMe app, HSBC said in a release that day. More than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate a stablecoin wallet in the app "in the coming days," the bank said, so the figure describes who is eligible, not who is using it yet.
That matters because a stablecoin is a token meant to hold a fixed value against a currency, and until now most of them have reached the public through crypto exchanges. RedCoin is instead being placed inside a payments app that already has millions of users, and it comes from a bank licensed for it by Hong Kong's monetary authority.
The licence is on the public record. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's register of licensed stablecoin issuers, kept under the Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656), lists The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited under licence number FRS02, effective April 10, 2026. HSBC's release says the bank was granted the licence in April 2026, which matches. The register lists one other licensee, Anchorpoint Financial Limited, under FRS01, effective the same day. The page was last revised on April 23, 2026.
Fig. 1. HSBC RedCoin from licence to rollout. Only the licence date and the Oct. 23 launch are dated in the primary sources; the rest is undated or planned. Sources: HKMA; HSBC.
What users can do at launch is narrow. Once a wallet is activated, HSBC said, PayMe users can send RedCoin to friends and family and pay with it at more than 100,000 merchants through PayMe. HSBC said RedCoin is HKD denominated and that its custody is handled by HSBC Digital Assets Custody. The release gives no figure for how many tokens have been issued, and Le Coin has found no primary source for one.
The bank said it tested the product before launch. Staff pilots with nearly 100 users covered the full customer journey, from minting and wallet activation to live transfers, according to the release, which says the work took place "in recent months" but gives no dates.
The next steps are plans, not products. "Later this year," HSBC said, it plans to add stablecoin wallet functionality to the HSBC HK Mobile Banking App and to let customers subscribe to tokenised investment products using RedCoin. Those will include a share class of HSBC's HKD money market fund that the bank describes as "soon-to-be-launched." Neither is live today. John O'Neill, HSBC's managing director for digital assets and currencies, said the bank will "soon add more products, including expanding into wholesale corporate and institutional use cases," without giving a date.
Maggie Ng, HSBC's chief executive for Hong Kong, said in the release that "money, assets and information are moving from traditional infrastructure to always-on, data-rich and increasingly programmable digital networks."
HSBC also cited a survey it commissioned. Its HSBC HK Stablecoin Study, run online in June 2026 with 1,060 HSBC customers aged 18 to 64, found that 53 per cent of respondents believe HKD stablecoins could strengthen economic competitiveness, the bank said.
RedCoin sits alongside other HSBC digital-asset products in the city. The release lists HSBC Orion digital bonds for institutional investors, the HSBC Gold Token for retail customers and the HSBC Tokenised Deposit Service for wholesale payments, and says the bank has taken part in HKMA initiatives including the e-HKD+ Pilot Programme and Project Ensemble since 2022.
In Le Coin's view, distribution is the notable part of this launch. A licensed bank token placed in an app with millions of existing users tests whether stablecoins can become an ordinary payment option rather than a crypto-market tool. The counterpoint is that eligibility is not adoption: the release gives no usage or supply figures, and the wallet rollout is still under way.
The next markers are the activation numbers, if HSBC publishes them, and whether the app wallet and fund share class arrive this year as planned.
Sources
- HSBC, "HSBC RedCoin launches today," Hong Kong, Oct. 23, 2026, https://www.about.hsbc.com.hk/news-and-media/hsbc-redcoin-launches-today, accessed Oct. 23, 2026, 6:12 a.m. ET. The release carries a date but no time.
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Register of Licensed Stablecoin Issuers (Stablecoins Ordinance, Cap. 656), last revised April 23, 2026, https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/regulatory-resources/registers/register-of-licensed-stablecoin-issuers/, accessed Oct. 23, 2026, 6:24 a.m. ET.
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.