Following our earlier report on Singapore based Ant International’s stablecoin plans, Bloomberg confirmed the company is now seeking regulatory approval in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg for its digital asset initiatives. Ant International, which operates the Alipay+ payments network and is being spun off from China’s Ant Group, represents one prong of the expansion. Separately, Hong Kong based Ant Digital Technologies, which remains part of the mainland Ant Group, has confirmed plans for its own Hong Kong stablecoin.
Bian Zhuoqun, President of Ant Digital Technologies, confirmed to reporters today that the company intends to apply for a stablecoin license in Hong Kong. He said the firm has had several dialogues with the regulator and has completed a pilot test with the regulatory sandbox. This may not be the stablecoin regulatory sandbox because it was not listed as a member. However, Ant Digital has participated in Hong Kong’s Project Ensemble, a separate sandbox for wholesale CBDC and tokenized deposits. There it partnered with the blockchain shipping network GSBN to explore tokenized electronic bills of lading (eBL). The company has been involved in various tokenization initiatives that we recently outlined.
These initiatives provide context for understanding Ant Group’s broader blockchain strategy. It was an early adopter of blockchain technologies and developed its own blockchain AntChain. Until now it has been exploring tokenized deposits and CBDCs. For example, Ant International has its blockchain-based Ant Whale platform that the group’s treasury uses to move money around the world. It has integrated with several tokenized deposit solutions including DBS, Standard Chartered, OCBC, HSBC, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments (formerly JPM Coin). This week it announced plans with Deutsche Bank.
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