Ant Group plans to apply for the first batch of Hong Kong stablecoin licenses, with a projected annual fund processing volume exceeding one trillion US dollars in 2024

Original Title: “Ant International Plans to Be the First to Apply for Stablecoin Issuance License in Hong Kong, Business Scale May Exceed $150 Billion”

Author: Bloomberg

Translation: TechFlow

On June 12, according to Bloomberg, Ant International will submit its application for a stablecoin issuance license to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority as soon as the "Stablecoin Regulation" comes into effect in August. The license will be used for cross-border payments and global treasury management. Meanwhile, according to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ant International responded by welcoming the Legislative Council's passage of the "Stablecoin Regulation Draft," stating that the company will submit its application after the law takes effect on August 1 and relevant channels are opened, hoping to contribute more to Hong Kong's future as an international financial center. Ant International is accelerating investments and expanding partnerships in global asset management, applying its innovations in AI, blockchain, and stablecoins to real and reliable large-scale applications.

Stablecoins are special regulated crypto assets pegged to fiat currencies, known for their high transparency and ability to reduce costs and improve efficiency in cross-border finance. In recent years, they have developed rapidly. Hong Kong has been actively developing a WEB 3.0 financial center, considering stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar as an important component of future financial infrastructure. At the end of May, the Legislative Council passed the Hong Kong "Stablecoin Regulation Draft," bringing the issuance of stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and other fiat currencies under regulation, aiming to improve the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities in Hong Kong to maintain financial stability while promoting financial innovation.

(Ant International will be the first to join the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Ensemble" liquidity management sandbox project in 2024, achieving multiple breakthroughs with its Whale platform and partners in October of that year.)

Currently, Ant International's main competitors include American companies like Stripe and PayPal, as well as card organizations like Visa and MasterCard, all of which have actively engaged in the U.S. stablecoin issuance system. Ant International is the first global fintech company to clearly state its intention to be the first to submit an application for the Hong Kong government's stablecoin issuance license, possessing extensive experience in large-scale fund management.

Ant International Manages $300 Billion Globally with Blockchain

As the parent company of Alipay, Ant Group has made internationalization a core development strategy. Ant International focuses on serving enterprises and institutions in cross-border financial services, facilitating cross-border payment cooperation platforms. In 2024, Ant Group will undergo restructuring, and Ant International will begin "standing on its own," forming four core business segments, including cross-border wallet payments and digital solutions (Alipay +), cross-border corporate account services (WorldFirst), global merchant payment services (Antom), and scenario-based financial services (EmFi). Bloomberg previously reported that Ant International's revenue in 2024 is expected to exceed $3 billion, having been profitable for two consecutive years, and is considering an IPO in Hong Kong.

According to reports, Ant International's global treasury technology service department manages its four core business segments with over 100 currencies, covering offline digital payments in more than 70 markets, online e-commerce payments in over 100 currencies, global account operations for 1.2 million SMEs, and treasury flow management between millions of enterprises and banks, involving the flow of proprietary and client funds in over 100 currencies.

In competing with international giants, Ant International has developed two core fund management technology products: the blockchain real-time cross-border fund platform Whale and the AI foreign exchange model Falcon. According to Bloomberg, Ant International's total fund processing volume in 2024 is expected to exceed $1 trillion, with over one-third of that volume processed through the Whale platform using blockchain technology. Based on this calculation, over $300 billion globally will be managed using Ant International's blockchain technology in 2024. If half of that can be realized in stablecoin applications, the trading volume of stablecoins within its existing business could exceed $150 billion.

Deeply Involved in Government Sandbox Programs as a Key Anchor for Hong Kong's Global Expansion

It is reported that Ant International also plans to apply for stablecoin-related licenses from local regulatory authorities in Luxembourg and Singapore, but Hong Kong remains a key focus for Ant International's global layout. At the 2024 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Ant Group and Ant International Chairman Jing Xiandong stated, "We hope Ant can contribute to establishing Hong Kong as a global leader in tokenization and Web3 fintech."

As early as May 2023, Ant Group became one of the first participants supporting the Monetary Authority's "Digital Hong Kong Dollar" pilot program, with the Hong Kong version of Alipay, AlipayHK, participating in the pilot.

In 2024, the Whale platform participated in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Ensemble Project" liquidity management sandbox and achieved two breakthroughs in October: completing the first cross-bank blockchain test transaction in Hong Kong dollars with HSBC, enabling real-time cross-bank transfers around the clock, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs; and successfully realizing internal transactions denominated in Hong Kong dollars with Standard Chartered Bank for the first time, applying it in a real business environment and banking system. In May 2025, Ant International again collaborated with HSBC to launch Hong Kong's first blockchain settlement solution, the "Tokenized Deposit Service," allowing clients to make real-time payments in Hong Kong dollars and U.S. dollars using corporate wallets.

Ant International's diversified layout in major global markets also makes it an early participant in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's related financial innovation sandbox pilot. In November 2023, Ant International participated in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian, exploring the construction of an open and interoperable digital asset trading platform and liquidity tools based on public chains.

In addition to local banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, since 2023, Ant International has also partnered with globally and regionally significant banks such as Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, OCBC, DBS Bank, and BNP Paribas. In this regard, Ant International's platform technology general manager Li Yue clearly positions its business as "building a technological bridge for the financial services industry." The extensive cooperation with large institutions also demonstrates the industry's recognition of its technology's security, reliability, and compliance.

"Hong Kong's status as an international financial center is not merely due to the numerous bank facades in Central; fundamentally, it is because various industries worldwide recognize Hong Kong's flexible and efficient treasury management, low transaction costs, and its suitability for the actual trading needs of various industries, supported by a highly secure and multi-layered ecosystem of traditional financial institutions," said Xiao Geng, a member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive's Policy Group and Chairman of the Hong Kong International Financial Association. He pointed out that by developing a stablecoin platform through technology and ecosystem, and encouraging diverse large-scale applications in real scenarios, it can promote multinational companies to choose Hong Kong as their treasury management center, which is significant for consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international financial center.