Anchorpoint is maintaining a phased rollout of its Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin HKDAP rather than immediately extending access to retail users. The Standard Chartered-backed issuer is keeping HKDAP in Beta Access for corporates and professional investors while it develops the distribution, payment and compliance infrastructure needed for broader use. CEO Dominic Maffei declined on October 23 to commit to a retail launch date, despite an earlier target of potentially expanding access as early as the end of 2026.
Anchorpoint is already a fully licensed issuer rather than a company awaiting regulatory approval. According to the HKMA register, Anchorpoint received stablecoin issuer licence FRS01 on April 10, 2026, authorizing it to issue regulated fiat-referenced stablecoins in Hong Kong. HKDAP subsequently entered Beta Access in August after earlier Ethereum mainnet tests.
Institutional Beta Builds Commercial Infrastructure
HKDAP is currently available through selected authorised distributors, including Finloop, HashKey, OSL, Standard Chartered Hong Kong and Yunfeng Financial. The beta limits access to corporate customers and professional investors while allowing partners to test issuance, redemption, payments and tokenized-asset settlement under live conditions. Standard Chartered has separately identified fund settlement, treasury management and cross-border trade payments among the commercial applications being explored.
The rollout is already producing measurable activity, although at a limited scale. Anchorpoint’s transparency dashboard showed HK$6.11 million of HKDAP in circulation, HK$7.21 million of reserves and HK$35.10 million in cumulative transaction volume as of October 21. Transaction volume should not be confused with circulation or new capital, because the same stablecoins can move repeatedly between participants.
The institutional-first model also fits Hong Kong’s wider effort to connect regulated digital money with tokenized settlement infrastructure. HKDAP is designed as a general-purpose payment and settlement instrument on public blockchains, initially Ethereum, rather than solely as liquidity for crypto trading. That positioning reflects the broader shift toward stablecoins functioning as payment rails across commercial and cross-border transactions.
Retail Access Requires a Broader Operating Model
Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance has been in force since August 1, 2025 and imposes requirements covering financial resources, reserve management, redemption, governance, technology and AML controls. Licensed non-bank issuers must maintain at least HK$25 million in paid-up capital or equivalent approved financial resources, while stablecoins must remain fully backed by high-quality, highly liquid reserves. Redemption requests are expected to be fulfilled at par within one business day under normal circumstances.
Anchorpoint’s own retail architecture introduces additional operational requirements beyond simply issuing more tokens. HKDAP transfers are restricted to verified wallet addresses, while most users obtain the stablecoin through authorised distributors rather than maintaining a direct account with Anchorpoint. Expanding that structure to individuals therefore requires distributors, custody providers, compliance systems and consumer-facing products to be ready at greater scale.
That compliance-heavy distribution model sits within Hong Kong’s broader expansion of digital-asset licensing, where stablecoin issuance, trading, custody and other services can fall under different supervisory frameworks. A retail launch consequently involves more than obtaining the issuer licence that Anchorpoint already holds, because downstream access and distribution must also operate through appropriately controlled channels.
Anchorpoint previously described Full Launch as possible as early as the end of 2026, but Maffei’s latest comments leave that milestone open. The company still intends to bring HKDAP to retail users, but there is currently no confirmed launch date. For now, the measurable expansion remains institutional, with broader access dependent on the readiness of distributors, payment infrastructure and the controls required to move regulated stablecoins from professional use into everyday transactions.
