Standard Chartered-led Anchorpoint takes cautious path to retail stablecoin

Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint is taking a cautious approach to opening its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin to retail users, with its chief executive declining to reaffirm a possible end-2026 launch. Cointelegraph, citing the South China Morning Post, reported that CEO Dominic Maffei stressed long-term market development rather than a rushed introduction.

Speaking at a Friday press conference, Maffei said the company wanted to build the market sustainably. His comments leave the earlier timetable unconfirmed, rather than establishing a replacement launch date or announcing that retail access has been cancelled.

The venture introduced institutional access to its HKDAP stablecoin in August. Its move toward individual users would represent a separate stage of that rollout, extending access beyond the corporate and professional-investor audience covered by the current beta phase.

Anchorpoint’s published guidance still describes a full launch as possible as early as the end of 2026, but makes that ambition conditional. The company says issuance, distribution, custody and other infrastructure must collectively be ready to support reliable adoption at scale.

That distinction matters because issuing a regulated token is only one part of making it usable by consumers. Anchorpoint describes its beta phase as an opportunity for distributors and adoption partners to prepare their systems, operations and products before access expands to retail individuals.

Anchorpoint was established in February 2025 as a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, telecommunications provider HKT and Animoca Brands. Standard Chartered says the partners began exploring tokenised money in early 2023 and subsequently participated in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s stablecoin issuer sandbox in 2024.

The company received a stablecoin issuer licence in April 2026 under Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025. In announcing the licence, Standard Chartered outlined ambitions including cross-border payments and the settlement and distribution of tokenised real-world assets, placing HKDAP within a broader financial-infrastructure strategy.

HKDAP stands for Hong Kong Dollar At Par and is designed to be redeemable one-for-one for Hong Kong dollars. Anchorpoint says reserves must cover at least the full par value of tokens in circulation and describes the product as a payment and settlement instrument, rather than a yield-bearing investment.

Distribution is another central part of the plan. Standard Chartered’s licensing announcement described a business-to-business-to-consumer model using selected authorised distributors, meaning broader public access would depend on partner channels rather than simply opening direct accounts with the issuer.

The cautious messaging comes as competition develops: Cointelegraph reported that HSBC launched its Hong Kong dollar-backed RedCoin through PayMe on Friday. For Anchorpoint, the next step remains expansion beyond beta access, with its published guidance tying that transition to operational readiness and Maffei declining to commit to the earlier retail timetable.