HSBC launches Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based payment service

HSBC has introduced Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based settlement service, enabling real-time HKD and USD transfers between corporate wallets. The tokenized deposit program converts traditional deposits into blockchain-based digital tokens, improving payment speed and reducing costs.

Initially available only in Hong Kong, the service will expand to Asia and Europe later this year. Ant International, affiliated with Alibaba, was the first to complete a live transaction on the system, built on Ant’s Whale platform. HSBC is working under HKMA’s supervisory incubator for distributed ledger technology and aims to support more digital settlement use cases.