HSBC's Hong Kong dollar stablecoin goes live in PayMe, on the bank's own ledger

HSBC's Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, RedCoin, is now live in PayMe, the bank's payments app, according to the bank's product page. Customers can use it to pay friends, family and shops. A stablecoin is a token meant to hold a steady value against an ordinary currency. HSBC says each RedCoin is designed to be redeemable one for one for Hong Kong dollars. When the bank named the coin on 30 September it had issued none and named no blockchain. It now says RedCoin runs on smart contracts on HSBC's own distributed ledger, a network the bank runs itself.

Ledger Insights and BTC-Echo, both crypto trade publications, reported the launch on 23 October. Both say PayMe users can pay at more than 100,000 merchants, a figure HSBC's page does not give. Ledger Insights puts PayMe's users at 3.3 million and calls RedCoin the first retail stablecoin issued by a bank in Hong Kong. The accounts differ on timing. BTC-Echo says users will be able to switch on a stablecoin wallet in the coming days. HSBC's page says customers can start paying "right away".

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority licensed the territory's first two stablecoin issuers in April: HSBC and Anchorpoint, a venture of Standard Chartered, the telecoms group HKT and Animoca Brands. Both reports say Anchorpoint's coin started in August, at first only for institutional investors. Ledger Insights notes that Hong Kong requires every holder of a stablecoin to be identified. HSBC can meet that, it argues, because PayMe users have already passed the bank's identity checks. The same design limits the coin. RedCoin cannot be moved between PayMe and HSBC's main banking app, where it is still "coming soon". The bank says it is offered on no other platform.

The page says customers will later be able to buy tokenized investment products with RedCoin through HSBC's app, a feature it footnotes to regulatory approval. Ledger Insights reports that the first will be a share class of a long-running HSBC Hong Kong dollar money market fund. HSBC's page does not say so. An independent auditor will report on the reserves, with the first report expected after the fourth quarter of 2026. RedCoin is not a protected deposit under Hong Kong's deposit insurance scheme. Neither report says how many coins are in circulation.