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HSBC has opened HSBC RedCoin (RCHKD), its first stablecoin, inside PayMe, on a permissioned chain the bank runs itself. More than 3.3 million PayMe users can activate a wallet over the coming days. On 26 October the bank reported HKD 81,003,487.24 in circulation, with cash reserves HKD 1,000,000.00 above that.
HSBC has put its first stablecoin into a consumer payments app. On 23 October 2026 the bank said HSBC RedCoin, ticker RCHKD, is available on PayMe by HSBC. It is denominated in Hong Kong dollars and licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. HSBC says it corresponds with the financial-crime controls required by Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance[1].
Over the coming days, more than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate a stablecoin wallet in the app. The release says they can send RedCoin to friends and family, and pay with it at more than 100,000 merchants[1].
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RedCoin is issued on HSBC's private, permissioned blockchain. The white paper, dated 23 October 2026, says the validator nodes are operated only by the bank, with no outside participation, and that the platform sits entirely inside HSBC's infrastructure, behind its firewall. The token is an EVM-compatible smart contract written to the ERC-20 standard. HSBC says the design is ready for a later connection to a public blockchain, subject to HKMA approval[3].
The product page describes the same arrangement: coins are created and moved by smart contracts on HSBC's own distributed-ledger network. It also says RedCoin is offered only through PayMe and, coming soon, the HSBC HK app, and that HSBC has no connection to fraudulent stablecoins that claim an association with the bank[2].
The white paper says each RedCoin is backed 1:1 by Hong Kong dollars, at 1.00 HKD per coin, and that no interest is paid on it. The reserves are high-quality, highly liquid Hong Kong dollar assets in segregated accounts[3]. The product page says the coin is designed to be redeemable 1:1 for HKD, subject to the terms, and that it is not a protected deposit and is not covered by the Deposit Protection Scheme in Hong Kong[2].
A customer's balance is not a personal on-chain wallet in the usual sense. The white paper says HSBC holds the coins for customers in one omnibus wallet, keeps the private key, and records each holder's entitlement itself. In PayMe or the HSBC app, that balance is tied to the customer's HSBC identifier and kept on an internal ledger[3].
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The white paper's fee table says there is no fee to buy RedCoin, no fee to redeem it, and no fee on person-to-person or merchant payments. HSBC says it can change that at its own discretion, on notice. An earlier section of the same paper still describes a redemption as paying out Hong Kong dollars after deducting relevant fees, if any[3]. The table is the part that puts the current charge at zero.
A valid redemption is supposed to be near-instant, and in any case within one business day, back into a PayMe Hong Kong dollar wallet or an HSBC account. The coin is available only in Hong Kong. The paper says holders, transferors and transferees would be HSBC customers who have passed the checks already used by PayMe or HSBC HK, and that the bank has sole discretion over who is eligible for a wallet[3].
Two limits on the product page are easy to miss. A RedCoin wallet on PayMe and the one planned for the HSBC HK app will be separate, and customers will not be able to move coins between them. A shop does not need a separate stablecoin setup: if it already accepts PayMe, a customer can pay from a RedCoin balance[2].
The HSBC HK app wallet is not part of this week's launch. The bank says it plans to add that wallet later this year, and to let customers subscribe to tokenised investment products with RedCoin, including a share class of its long-running Hong Kong dollar money market fund[1]. John O'Neill, managing director for digital assets and currencies, said: "We will soon add more products, including expanding into wholesale corporate and institutional use cases. This is only the beginning."[1]
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HSBC's stablecoin page says the circulation figures are updated daily. As of 26 October 2026 it listed HKD 81,003,487.24 as the total par value of RedCoin in circulation, HKD 82,003,487.24 as the market value of the reserve assets, and the same HKD 82,003,487.24 as the value of reserve assets held in cash. The seven-day change in par value in circulation was HKD 79,735,388.18[2].
The cash line matches the market value, so on that date the published reserves were entirely cash. The reserve market value is HKD 1,000,000.00 above the par value in circulation, the difference between those two figures. The seven-day change is a net number. It is HKD 1,268,099.06 below the par value outstanding, again the difference between the two figures on the page, so that week's net addition accounts for all but HKD 1,268,099.06 of the coins in circulation. The page does not split the week into coins minted and coins redeemed.
The first independent attestation of the reserves is expected after the fourth quarter of 2026[2]. The white paper says the reports will come at least quarterly, using the last business day of the period and at least one randomly chosen business day inside it. The reserve pool is held in trust, with HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Asia) Limited as trustee. HSBC is entitled to income on the reserves, bears any losses, and can transfer any excess out of the pool from time to time[3].
Before the public launch, staff pilots with nearly 100 users ran through minting, wallet activation and live transfers[1].
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The issuer is The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings. The HKMA register lists its stablecoin issuer licence, number FRS02, as effective on 10 April 2026. The copy of the register fetched for this story was last revised on 23 April 2026, and it names one other licensee, Anchorpoint Financial Limited, as FRS01 from the same day[4]. HSBC's release also gives PayMe's stored-value facility licence as SVFB002[1].
On 10 April, HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue wrote that 36 entities applied in the first batch and that licences went to HSBC and to Anchorpoint, a joint venture of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands. He said both planned to issue Hong Kong dollar stablecoins first, and that regulated stablecoins were expected to launch from the middle to the second half of 2026[5].
Anchorpoint started earlier, on a public chain, and for a narrower set of users. On 12 August 2026 it said a phase-one rollout of HKDAP ("HKD At Par") was underway for institutional distributors and professional investors. Authorised distributors would convert HKDAP and fiat for institutions, corporate users and professional investors. Broader retail use, it said, was still targeted for as early as the end of 2026, depending on market conditions[6].
That retail date is still unset. The South China Morning Post reported on 26 October that Anchorpoint has yet to commit to a launch date and says it will not rush the product to market. Chief executive Dominic Maffei told the paper: "This is a public blockchain stablecoin, so applying this to retail, a lot of considerations need to be made."[7]
Maggie Ng, chief executive for Hong Kong and head of retail banking and wealth there, described the shift RedCoin is meant to sit in: "Money, assets and information are moving from traditional infrastructure to always-on, data-rich and increasingly programmable digital networks."[1]
A survey HSBC ran online in June 2026, of 1,060 of its Hong Kong customers aged 18 to 64, found that 53 per cent thought Hong Kong dollar stablecoins could strengthen the city's economic competitiveness. The bank said easy access through existing apps, and faster payments and settlement, were among the strongest reasons people would adopt one. It did not publish the share who gave those reasons[1].
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In April the HKMA licensed two stablecoin issuers and said it expected them to go live in the second half of the year. HSBC's coin is the one now inside a mass-market app: more than 3.3 million PayMe users, payments at merchants that already take PayMe, and a ledger whose validators the bank alone runs[1][3]. The published supply on 26 October was HKD 81,003,487.24[2]. What is still open is whether people leave money in a token HSBC says is not a deposit, that the bank offers only inside its own apps, and that still has its first auditor's report ahead of it[2].
Sources
FAQ
HSBC RedCoin, ticker RCHKD, is a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin issued by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited under HKMA licence FRS02. HSBC says each coin is backed 1:1 by HKD, pays no interest, and went on sale through PayMe on 23 October 2026. The white paper says it is issued on the bank's private, permissioned chain, using an EVM-compatible ERC-20 contract.
HSBC says no. The product page says RedCoin is available only through PayMe and, later, the HSBC HK app, and that the bank has no connection to fraudulent stablecoins elsewhere that claim to be associated with it. The white paper says the coin is offered only in Hong Kong, to people who pass PayMe or HSBC customer checks, and that HSBC alone decides who may hold a wallet.
HSBC says it is not. The product page states that RedCoin is not a protected deposit and is not covered by the Deposit Protection Scheme in Hong Kong. The white paper says reserve assets are held in trust for holders, and that if HSBC became insolvent those holders could direct a pro-rata sale of the reserve pool and claim against the bank for any shortfall.
The white paper's fee table says there is currently no fee to buy RedCoin, no fee to redeem it, and no fee on person-to-person or merchant payments. HSBC says it can change that at its own discretion, on notice. The same paper's redemption section still describes the Hong Kong dollar payout as coming after any relevant fees are deducted. Redemption is intended to be near-instant and, in any case, within one business day.
HSBC's product page, which it says is updated daily, showed HKD 81,003,487.24 of RedCoin at par on 26 October 2026. Reserve assets were listed at a market value of HKD 82,003,487.24, and the cash line was the same number. The seven-day change in circulation was HKD 79,735,388.18. Those figures are the bank's own. The first independent attestation is expected after the fourth quarter of 2026.
The HKMA licensed both issuers on 10 April 2026. Anchorpoint, a Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands venture, said on 12 August that HKDAP had started on a public blockchain for institutions and professional investors, with broader retail use still targeted for as early as the end of 2026. On 26 October the South China Morning Post reported that Anchorpoint had still not set a retail launch date. HSBC's coin is in PayMe, on a permissioned chain.
The 23 October release says a stablecoin wallet in the HSBC HK mobile banking app, and subscriptions to tokenised investments paid in RedCoin, are planned for later this year. That includes a share class of HSBC's Hong Kong dollar money market fund. The product page says the PayMe wallet and the banking-app wallet will be separate, and that coins cannot be transferred from one to the other.
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