The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) does not plan to issue a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) or e-HKD any time soon. Instead, it intends to prioritize work on its wholesale CBDC, which it is developing as part of Project Ensemble for the settlement of tokenization transactions and for the interbank settlement of tokenized deposits. Separately, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported that seven Hong Kong banks are planning to launch tokenized deposits this year, based on an HKMA interview. HSBC has already launched a tokenized deposit service.
Depending on international developments and market demand, it’s possible that the retail CBDC decision could change. Hence, during the first six months of 2026 the HKMA aims to finalize preparatory work from a policy, legal and technical perspective.
These conclusions were outlined in a report on phase 2 of the e-HKD trials, which investigated the commercial viability of both a retail CBDC and tokenized deposits. The phase 2 pilots involved 21 firms, including a dozen banks as well as BlackRock, Fidelity International, BCG, Mastercard and Visa.
The HKMA found that retail users did not particularly distinguish between the e-HKD and tokenized deposits, especially given they would access both via banks. Just over a third of users had privacy concerns about a CBDC. For different reasons, the e-HKD pilots demonstrated that asset managers also did not have a strong preference between a CBDC or tokenized deposits.
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