Hong Kong Expands Digital Currency Project to 21 Financial Institutions

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched the second phase of the e-HKD pilot study. The broader project, renamed Project e-HKD+, will now research 11 different use cases of the CBDC and tokenized deposits on the back of 21 financial institutiThis article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.

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This will be another new phase, which will last for about a year, running in a sandbox environment. HKMA extended the scope of the project due to the growing interest and expanding range of uses of digital currencies within finance.

Project e-HKD+ will focus on three key themes: settlement of tokenized assets, programmability, and offline payments. As part of the pilot, Visa, ANZ, Fidelity, and ChinaAMC will be working on real-time, almost instant-settlement of interbank transfers, cross-border payments, and a DvP mechanism using e-HKD and tokenized deposits.

Another interesting application case is when Hang Seng Bank, Aptos Lab, and Boston Consulting Group jointly will test the commercial viability of a settlement of tokenized funds by using digital money on a public blockchain. This can unlock new efficiency and transparency for the fund management practice.

Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) and China Mobile (Hong Kong) will also explore the use of e-HKD stored on mobile SIM cards for making payments and transfers in an offline manner. It may further extend the reach and usefulness of the digital currency, particularly where connectivity is poor.

Additionally, the authority is extending its technological horizons as it also announced a separate Generative AI sandbox in collaboration with Cyberport.