A day after winding up the consultation period on stablecoin issuer regulations, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the first participants in its stablecoin issuer sandbox. They are a company linked to a large Chinese e-commerce retailer, a local fintech and a coalition of Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications.
The participants will undergo an assessment process as the hopeful stablecoin users test their operational plans and communicate with regulators on the proposed regulatory regime. They will be prohibited from handling or soliciting funds from the public for activities related to the sandbox. HKMA deputy CEO Darryl Chan released comments on the sandbox in which he wrote:
“A key consideration is the need to propose concrete use cases for the stablecoin to help address pain points in economic activities and create value and new opportunities for our economy and financial services.”
Animoca Brands teams up with major local companies
Hong Kong-based Web3 software developer and venture capital firm Animoca Brands released a statement emphasizing the common interest of Animoca, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) and HK Telecom in developing Hong Kong’s digital asset ecosystem and its applications in the real world.
The Animoca statement mentioned that the coalition will use the services of Zodia Custody. Zodia Custody, which is majority-owned by the bank and provides cold storage of digital assets, launched services in Hong Kong in October.
Local tech firms want a go at stablecoin issuance too
Jingdong Coinlink Technology Hong Kong is another participant in the stablecoin sandbox. Jingdong is an e-commerce retailer in China that does business as JD.com. It created a blockchain arm in 2018.
The final participant, RD InnoTech, is a subsidiary of RD Technologies. That company intends to “conduct testing for various use cases of its proprietary Hong Kong Dollar stablecoin, ‘HKDR,’ such as digital asset trading and cross-border trade payments.” The HKDR is described on the company’s website as “coming soon.”
Related: Don’t rule out algorithmic stablecoins, Crypto Council tells Hong Kong
RD Technologies produces an electronic wallet for fiat currencies and an app called RD ezLink that allows companies to create a verified business profile to share with financial institutions.
The HKMA and Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau released updated proposed regulations for stablecoin issuers on July7.
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