Hong Kong kicks off second phase of e-HKD pilot project to explore tokenization and offline payments
Hong Kong on Monday kicked off the second phase of its central bank digital currency pilot project, aiming to test the commercial viability of its e-HKD.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the de facto central bank, said in a statement that the project has been renamed âe-HKD+ Projectâ and the second phase of the e-HKD pilot has officially begun.
âIn Phase 2, 11 groups of companies from various sectors have been selected to explore innovative use cases for e-HKD and tokenized deposits in three main themes, namely tokenized asset settlement, programmability and offline payments,â the HKMA said.
The HKMA intends to conduct the second phase with an e-HKD sandbox to allow pilot participants to prototype and test use cases. According to a separate white paper, Hang Seng Bank, Aptos Labs and Boston Consulting Group plan to test the commercial value of settling a tokenized fund with digital money on a public blockchain.
The paper also showed that Visa, ANZ, Fidelity and ChinaAMC will explore settling interbank transfers and cross-border payments through e-HKD and tokenized deposits, with the aim of facilitating purchases by Australian-based corporate investors of tokenized fund units offered by asset management companies in Hong Kong.
Other participants include Bank of China, HSBC, ICBC, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS, BlackRock, Mastercard and China Mobile.
The HKMA aims to reveal key findings from the second phase by the end of 2025. The first phase of the e-HKD pilot studied domestic retail use cases for programmable payments, tokenized asset settlement and offline payments. #tokenization #BinanceSquareFamily #Bitcoinâ #BTCâ #moonbix $BTC
