- HSBC RedCoin, ticker RCHKD, went live on October 23, 2026 through the PayMe by HSBC app, the bank’s first-ever stablecoin product
- The Hong Kong dollar-denominated token is available to more than 3.3 million PayMe users for peer-to-peer transfers and payments at over 100,000 merchants
- HSBC received its stablecoin issuer licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April 2026, carrying licence numbers SVFB002 and FRS02
HSBC launched its first stablecoin, called RedCoin and trading under the ticker RCHKD, on October 23, 2026, making it available to users of its PayMe mobile payments app. The Hong Kong dollar-pegged token marks the bank’s formal entry into issuing its own regulated digital currency rather than simply offering custody or trading services around other companies’ tokens.
RedCoin is immediately available to more than 3.3 million PayMe users, who the bank says will be able to activate an in-app stablecoin wallet over the coming days. Once activated, users can send RedCoin peer-to-peer to friends and family or spend it directly at more than 100,000 merchants that already accept PayMe, giving the token an existing, large-scale payments network to plug into rather than needing to build merchant acceptance from scratch.
The token operates under a licence HSBC received from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April 2026, identified in HSBC’s own materials by stablecoin issuer licence number FRS02 and stored-value facility licence number SVFB002. That licensing sits within Hong Kong’s broader Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025 and created a formal regulatory pathway for banks and other institutions to issue HKD-backed stablecoins under direct HKMA oversight, rather than operating in a regulatory gray area the way many earlier stablecoins did.
HSBC said it plans to expand RedCoin’s reach later this year by adding stablecoin wallet functions directly into its main HSBC HK Mobile Banking App, alongside tokenised investment products including a share class of one of its Hong Kong dollar money-market funds. Maggie Ng, HSBC’s Chief Executive Officer for Hong Kong and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth, said the bank sees an opportunity to help customers in Hong Kong manage the broader shift toward digital payment networks. John O’Neill, HSBC’s Managing Director for Digital Assets and Currencies, called the launch a big step forward for safe and widely available digital assets and currencies in Hong Kong.
The move adds HSBC to a short list of HKMA-licensed stablecoin issuers that also includes Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands, which began its own phased institutional rollout in August 2026. HSBC’s push into stablecoins builds on an existing digital-asset track record the bank highlighted alongside the RedCoin launch, including its HSBC Orion platform, which the bank says has enabled more than $8.3 billion in digitally native bonds since 2023, and its HSBC Gold Token, which the bank says had recorded 390,000 trades and $2.5 billion in traded value as of the end of August 2026. The announcement, published on HSBC’s own newsroom, did not disclose a specific timeline for the planned mobile banking app integration.
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