HSBC RedCoin stablecoin goes live for 3.3 million PayMe users

Key takeaways

• HSBC began rolling out RedCoin (ticker RCHKD), its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, on its PayMe app on 23 October 2026; more than 3.3 million PayMe users can activate a wallet over the coming days.
• At launch, RedCoin covers two uses: person-to-person transfers and payments to merchants that accept PayMe.
• The token is issued under a Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) stablecoin issuer licence. HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial were the first two licensees, approved on 10 April 2026.
• HSBC's own reserve disclosure, dated 23 October, shows about HK$80.6 million of RedCoin in circulation and HK$81.6 million of reserve assets, all held in cash.
• RedCoin runs on HSBC's own distributed ledger and works only inside HSBC apps. It is not a bank deposit and is not covered by Hong Kong's Deposit Protection Scheme.

HSBC RedCoin stablecoin: what went live on PayMe

The HSBC RedCoin stablecoin is now live on PayMe, the bank's Hong Kong payments app. HSBC began the rollout on 23 October, and more than 3.3 million PayMe users can activate a wallet over the coming days for transfers and merchant payments.

That 3.3 million figure is the number of people eligible to activate a wallet. It is not the number already using RedCoin. According to crypto.news, which cited a South China Morning Post report, the rollout is phased: users update the app and activate a RedCoin wallet without opening a separate bank account or keeping a minimum balance.

Once a wallet is active, users can send RedCoin to friends and family and pay merchants. CoinDesk, citing HSBC, put the merchant network at more than 100,000 businesses. HSBC has not published a list of participating merchants.

This is a real change of status. On 30 September, when HSBC first revealed the RedCoin name, InvestingLive reported that the token was "not yet live" and that the bank had not set a launch date or named a blockchain. Both of those points have now been answered, at least in part.

RedCoin at a glance

How RedCoin is backed: reserve figures

HSBC says RedCoin is fully backed by high-quality, highly liquid assets held separately from the bank's own funds. Its stablecoin page publishes a reserve snapshot. The figures below are as HSBC reported them, dated 23 October 2026. The page does not give a time of day.

Almost all of the circulating supply was created in the past week. That fits a token that has only just reached the public. HSBC says independent attestations of the reserves will be published, with the first expected after the fourth quarter of 2026. Until then, the only reserve figures available are HSBC's own.

The HKMA licence behind it

Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance took effect on 1 August 2025. In an inSight article dated 10 April 2026, HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said 36 entities had applied in the first batch. Two were licensed: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands.

The HKMA said it chose the two because of their risk-management experience and their use cases backed by viable business plans. It named four priority areas: cross-border payments, local payments, tokenised asset trading, and newer uses such as conditional payments and supply-chain finance. The regulator described its stance on further licences as "open yet prudent". It also said any additional licences would be very limited in number.

Anchorpoint took a different route. Cointelegraph reported that it began rolling out its HKDAP token through HashKey Exchange in August, starting with eligible institutions and professional investors. HSBC went straight to a retail payments app.

What HSBC has and has not disclosed

Disclosed

• Ledger: RedCoin runs on HSBC's own distributed ledger network, where smart contracts handle issuance and transfers.
• Wallets: The PayMe wallet and the planned HSBC HK App wallet are separate. RedCoin cannot be moved between them, and neither wallet is a bank account.
• Next step: A RedCoin wallet in the HSBC HK mobile banking app later in 2026. There, customers will be able to subscribe to tokenised investment products, starting with a new share class of HSBC's existing Hong Kong dollar money market fund.

Not disclosed

• Whether RedCoin will ever move to a public blockchain or to wallets outside HSBC. So far it works only in HSBC-approved apps.
• Fees, per-transaction limits and holding caps. None appears on HSBC's stablecoin page.
• A date for the banking-app wallet or the tokenised fund. crypto.news reported a HK$100 minimum subscription for the fund, but HSBC's stablecoin page does not confirm this.
• A timeline for corporate use. John O'Neill, HSBC's managing director for digital assets and currencies, told CoinDesk: "We will soon add more products, including expanding into wholesale corporate and institutional use cases."

What it means

RedCoin is one of the first cases of a global bank putting a regulated fiat stablecoin into a mass-market payments app. Most stablecoin activity has run through crypto exchanges and self-custody wallets. HSBC is testing whether ordinary app users will hold a tokenised Hong Kong dollar when it looks and works like the balance they already use.

The design is deliberately closed. RedCoin sits on a private bank ledger, only moves inside HSBC apps and carries no deposit insurance. That gives up the open transferability that makes dollar stablecoins useful in crypto markets. In exchange, HSBC gets tighter control over anti-money-laundering checks and holder identity, which the HKMA listed among its licensing requirements. The real test is whether customers find a reason to hold RedCoin instead of ordinary Hong Kong dollars in PayMe. The tokenised money market fund is HSBC's first answer to that.

The launch also adds to a wider shift. Banks and regulated firms are now moving into stablecoins in several markets: US regulators are finalising GENIUS Act rules on stablecoin rewards, Shinhan and SBI are testing yen stablecoin payments, and Tether is funding new payment infrastructure. For Hong Kong's financial sector more broadly, see Bullquill's China and Hong Kong markets brief.

Points to watch: how many PayMe users actually activate wallets, the next reserve snapshots, the first independent attestation after the fourth quarter, and whether the HKMA grants more licences.

Sources

• HSBC Hong Kong — HSBC RedCoin stablecoin page and reserve disclosure
• HKMA inSight — Robust development of the regulated stablecoin ecosystem in Hong Kong (10 April 2026)
• HKMA — Stablecoin issuers regime and register
• CoinDesk — HSBC rolls out its first stablecoin to over 3 million everyday app users (23 October 2026)
• Cointelegraph — HSBC launches RedCoin Hong Kong dollar stablecoin on PayMe (23 October 2026)
• crypto.news — HSBC launches RedCoin stablecoin, plans tokenized fund investments (23 October 2026)
• InvestingLive — RedCoin named but not yet live (30 September 2026)

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.