Standard Chartered Launches Tokenised Deposits in Hong Kong

Standard Chartered launched its Tokenised Deposits solution in Hong Kong on November 2, 2026, making the city the first market in the banking group to offer the service to corporate clients.

The solution uses tokenisation and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's EnsembleTX infrastructure to support treasury, liquidity and operational activities for corporate treasurers, banks, investment platforms and digital asset businesses. Standard Chartered plans to expand it to more markets over time.

Built on the bank's proprietary blockchain infrastructure, the service combines regulated bank deposits with the programmability of tokenised assets. Eligible clients can use commercial bank deposits in digital treasury and investment workflows, including intragroup liquidity management.

With support from the HKMA's Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology, the solution allows tokenised deposits to move in real time between participating banks. Interbank settlement takes place in central bank money, including wholesale central bank digital currency, on a 24-hour, seven-day basis.

Standard Chartered said the system improves efficiency, interoperability and settlement predictability while reducing counterparty risk as value moves between financial institutions. The launch also adds to the bank's digital asset offering and Hong Kong's tokenised assets ecosystem.

China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade have already executed live tokenised deposit transactions and settled tokenised money market funds using the HKMA's EnsembleTX infrastructure.

Standard Chartered is partnering with Fireblocks to embed banking capabilities in its platform and provide native access to the digital asset client ecosystem. HashKey has also joined the ecosystem.

The companies are exploring how tokenised deposits can improve institutional treasury management and connectivity across investment and capital markets activities. Standard Chartered said wider adoption and evolving use cases are expected to bring broader benefits to the real economy and support innovation across financial markets.

Mary Huen, CEO for Hong Kong and Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered, said: "We welcome the latest initiatives announced by HKMA at Hong Kong FinTech Week under the ‘DART’ framework. Standard Chartered has been a major participant in the HKMA’s EnsembleTX, contributing to its development and some of its earliest real-value transaction use cases. This has given us first-hand experience of how tokenisation can enhance efficiency, transparency and interoperability across financial markets. Building on this foundation, we are proud to launch our Tokenised Deposits in Hong Kong, the first in our global network. This underscores Hong Kong’s position as a leading digital asset hub and reinforces our commitment to innovation and supporting our clients’ evolving treasury, liquidity and digital asset needs across borders."

Ole Matthiessen, Global Head of Transaction Services and Digital Assets at Standard Chartered, said: "The value of tokenised deposits lies in their ability to help clients move and manage liquidity more efficiently across institutions and markets. This launch brings digital money into practical treasury and investment workflows, supported by the trust and controls of the banking system. By working across the ecosystem, we are addressing real client needs and playing our part in taking tokenisation from experimentation towards broader scalable adoption."