Animoca‑backed Anchorpoint to launch HKDAP stablecoin as ECB backs ESMA crypto push

Anchorpoint Financial Technology, a joint venture backed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands, will launch a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin called HKDAP (HKD At Par) in the second quarter of 2026 after securing a stablecoin issuer licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The licence, granted under Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance that took effect on August 1, 2025, makes Anchorpoint one of the city’s first authorised issuers of fiat‑referenced stablecoins alongside HSBC and clears the way for a phased rollout of HKDAP for institutional and eventually retail use.

In its licence announcement, Anchorpoint said it “targets to issue the regulated Hong Kong Dollar‑backed stablecoins – HKDAP (i.e. HKD At Par) with a phased approach from the second quarter of this year,” positioning the token as “a secure, accessible, and transparent digital currency” for digital markets. According to the HKMA and company statements, each HKDAP token will be backed 1:1 by high‑quality, highly liquid Hong Kong dollar reserves held in segregated accounts, in line with Hong Kong’s rules for HKD‑referenced stablecoins.

Animoca Brands’ group president Evan Auyang has framed a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin as core financial infrastructure rather than a speculative play. In comments cited by Chinese outlet National Business Daily, he said “stablecoins are the bridge between native and enterprise Web3” and argued that “mainland assets going global need a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin,” calling such a coin “crucial for Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure” and key to supporting “games, trade, and 24/7 financial settlement.”

Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance is one of the most prescriptive frameworks globally, requiring full 1:1 reserve backing, segregated assets, strict liquidity criteria and ongoing disclosure for any fiat‑referenced tokens offered to the public. The HKMA initially aimed to approve the first HKD‑referenced licences by March 2026 but slipped to April, when it authorised Anchorpoint and HSBC in what officials described as a step toward “a secure tokenised medium of exchange for the digital economy and to facilitate international payments and capital flows,” while avoiding the opacity that has plagued parts of the global stablecoin market as total supply has climbed above $300 billion.

The HKDAP launch comes as regional hubs race to anchor regulated stablecoin activity and tokenised money flows, with Singapore running pilots and the European Union bringing MiCA‑style rules for fiat‑backed tokens into force, trends previously examined in a crypto.news story on stablecoin market growth. In Europe, the European Central Bank has now “fully” backed a European Commission plan to shift supervision of systemically important crypto‑asset service providers and key trading venues from national authorities to the Paris‑based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), calling the move “an ambitious step towards deeper integration of capital markets and financial market supervision.”

Citing a Reuters report on its opinion, the ECB said “direct supervision by ESMA of certain market players is warranted to address risks stemming from their cross‑border activities,” arguing that the current patchwork of 27 national regimes is “insufficient” for integrated markets. At the same time, the central bank warned that ESMA will need “more staff and resources” to police large crypto firms across the bloc, and that the proposed law — seen as the biggest structural change since MiCA took effect at the end of 2024 — could take months of negotiation among EU governments and lawmakers, as detailed in a recent crypto.news story on ESMA’s expanding remit.

Together, Hong Kong’s HKDAP regime and Europe’s ESMA push point in the same direction: regulators are dragging stablecoins and systemic crypto platforms into bank‑grade, centrally supervised frameworks rather than letting them sit on the industry’s fringes.