Hong Kong’s e-HKD+ initiative enters critical phase, focusing on tokenized funds and real-time settlement

Against the backdrop of deepening financial technology innovation in Hong Kong, the second phase of the e-HKD pilot program has entered a critical stage. According to official news, China Asset Management (Hong Kong), Visa, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Fidelity International jointly released a mid-term report titled "Transforming Global Payments: The Role of Tokenized Currencies and Funds in Cross-Border Transactions", detailing the latest progress of the e-HKD+ Sandbox program led by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

This phase of testing focuses on three core use cases: tokenized asset settlement, programmability, and offline payments. Among them, the cross-border application of tokenized assets has become one of the highlights of the test. The report shows a specific scenario: Australian investors obtain digital Hong Kong dollars or tokenized deposits through ANZ Bank, and use these digital assets to purchase tokenized Hong Kong dollar money market fund units from China Asset Management (Hong Kong), an asset management institution in Hong Kong. The entire transaction process is designed to be completed in near real time and synchronously, aiming to verify how to effectively reduce counterparty risk in the cross-border settlement process.

This solution breaks through the time delay and intermediary costs of traditional cross-border payments, and with the help of the immutability and high transparency of blockchain, it brings new efficiency improvements to the flow of funds. Especially at a time when asset tokenization continues to penetrate into the traditional financial field, this test scenario is seen as an important exploration to promote the modernization of capital markets and global connectivity.

According to the plan, the next stage of the sandbox will further advance to end-to-end transaction testing, covering the simulation of the entire process from fund acquisition to asset delivery. Through this process, participating institutions hope to gain a deeper understanding of the potential of tokenization technology in improving settlement security, optimizing liquidity management and strengthening regulatory docking.

The report also pointed out that the research results of the e-HKD+ sandbox test will provide important references for key technical links such as the interoperability standards of tokenized assets, token structure design, distribution mechanism and all-weather availability provided by blockchain. As the test continues to deepen, this project is expected to promote the development of cross-border payment and digital currency infrastructure, and provide solid support for Hong Kong to build a world-leading tokenized financial ecosystem.