Standard Chartered has launched tokenised deposits for corporate clients in Hong Kong, the first market in the group to offer them, the bank said in a release on 2 November. The service runs on the bank’s own blockchain and on EnsembleTX, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s tokenisation pilot. It lets clients move tokenised deposits between participating banks in real time, with the banks settling with each other in central bank money around the clock.
That last part arrived the same day. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced on 2 November that EnsembleTX now supports interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions “in tokenised Central Bank Money (CeBM) on a 24/7 basis”, and that its pilot has grown to 12 banks and 20 other industry pioneers. Neither release gives transaction volumes, values or fees.
In brief
- Standard Chartered’s tokenised deposits are live for corporate clients in Hong Kong, its first market for the service.
- The HKMA’s EnsembleTX pilot now settles tokenised deposit transactions between banks in tokenised central bank money, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade are already transacting, the bank says. No volumes or prices were disclosed.
Three clients already use Standard Chartered’s tokenised deposits
A tokenised deposit is an ordinary bank deposit recorded on a ledger, so it remains a claim on a regulated bank rather than on a stablecoin issuer. Standard Chartered says its version “combines the trust of regulated bank deposits with the programmability and capabilities of tokenised assets”. It is aimed at corporate treasurers, banks, investment platforms and digital asset businesses, and the bank lists “intragroup liquidity management” among the treasury uses.
The bank says China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade are already “executing live tokenised deposit transactions and settlement of tokenised money market funds” through EnsembleTX. Fireblocks is partnering with the bank “to embed banking capabilities in the platform”, and HashKey has also joined. The solution was developed with support from the HKMA’s Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology. Standard Chartered plans to offer tokenised deposits in more markets “over time”, without naming them or giving dates.
“This launch brings digital money into practical treasury and investment workflows, supported by the trust and controls of the banking system,” said Ole Matthiessen, the bank’s global head of transaction services and digital assets. Mary Huen, chief executive for Hong Kong, Greater China and North Asia, said Standard Chartered had been “a major participant” in EnsembleTX, “contributing to its development and some of its earliest real-value transaction use cases”.
The launch adds to the bank’s recent digital asset moves elsewhere. In October it began holding Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin for institutions in Dubai, and its Singapore arm set out plans for crypto and tokenised asset custody.
The HKMA moves EnsembleTX settlement to central bank money around the clock
EnsembleTX is the pilot phase of Project Ensemble. When it launched in November 2025, it used the Hong Kong dollar Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to settle tokenised deposit transactions between banks. The HKMA says the new capability lets participants use tokenised central bank money “for the timely settlement of tokenised transactions beyond conventional operating hours”. Standard Chartered describes the same settlement as being in central bank money, “including wholesale central bank digital currency (‘wCBDC’)”. The HKMA’s release does not use that term.
According to the HKMA’s annex, five tokenised deposit banks joined in 2026: Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), China CITIC Bank International, ICBC (Asia), Industrial Bank’s Hong Kong branch and Nanyang Commercial Bank. They join seven from 2025, including Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC and Bank of China (Hong Kong). New pioneers this year include Finloop, HashKey Group, PantherTrade, JINGDONG Technology and CMU OmniClear. HSBC was among the first users: it completed its first live cross-bank transaction in EnsembleTX for Ant International in November 2025.
“In just two years, Project Ensemble has transitioned from experimentation and piloting to a new phase focused on promoting the commercialisation of tokenisation applications in Hong Kong,” said Eddie Yue, the HKMA’s chief executive. Julia Leung, chief executive of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said tokenised deposits “can now power around-the-clock transactions, including corporate treasury management and secondary trading of tokenised funds on licensed platforms”.
Round-the-clock settlement is the bigger change than one bank’s launch
The interbank settlement leg is the part that matters most. A tokenised deposit can move between companies at any hour, but when two different banks are involved, those banks still have to settle with each other. Under the earlier set-up, the HKMA’s own wording implies that settlement was tied to conventional operating hours. If the new set-up works as described, a transfer made at a weekend or overnight no longer has to leave two banks owing each other until the next business day. Standard Chartered says this is “significantly reducing counterparty risk as value moves between financial institutions”; that is the bank’s claim, and neither release gives numbers to test it.
It also makes Hong Kong’s regulators look joined up. Leung’s comments link the settlement change directly to fund trading, after the SFC last month approved 24/7 trading of two tokenised money market funds and tied it to Project Ensemble. Round-the-clock fund trading needs round-the-clock cash on the other side, and tokenised deposits settled in central bank money are Hong Kong’s answer. Banks there are also trying the stablecoin route: HSBC has launched its RedCoin stablecoin on PayMe alongside its tokenised deposit service. For corporate treasurers, the practical difference is who holds the risk. A tokenised deposit stays a claim on a regulated bank, inside that bank’s controls.
The test for tokenised deposits now is scale. A controlled pilot with 12 banks and 20 pioneers is broad participation, but the HKMA itself describes EnsembleTX as a pilot phase. The markers to watch are whether Standard Chartered names its next market, whether the HKMA or the banks publish transaction volumes, and whether more corporate clients beyond the three named here start using the service.
Sources
- Standard Chartered: “Standard Chartered launches Tokenised Deposits in Hong Kong”, 2 November 2026
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority: “HKMA advances Project Ensemble pilot phase to 24/7 settlement in tokenised Central Bank Money”, 2 November 2026
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority: Annex A and Annex B, participating banks and industry pioneers of EnsembleTX, 2 November 2026
Related stories
- Standard Chartered Holds RLUSD for Institutions, Plans LMAX Collateral
- Hong Kong’s SFC Approves 24/7 Trading of Two Tokenised Money Funds
- HSBC Launches RedCoin, Its First Stablecoin, on PayMe in Hong Kong
- Tokenised Assets Go Institutional: Shares, Custody, Home Loans and a €100m Fund Unit
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