Standard Chartered Launches Tokenized Deposit Service in Hong Kong

Standard Chartered launched a Hong Kong service that lets eligible companies transfer bank deposits across participating institutions, introducing tokenized bank deposits into corporate treasury and investment operations.

The Tokenized Deposits service is the first offering in the bank’s global network to support this type of cross-bank transfer. It runs on Standard Chartered’s blockchain infrastructure alongside EnsembleTX, a platform developed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for banks and other industry participants to settle tokenized assets using tokenized deposits.

Interbank transactions settle in central bank money, including wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). Eligible clients can move deposits between participating banks at any time.

Hong Kong’s Sept. 29 pricing of about HK$20 billion equivalent in digital green bonds included an option to settle the Hong Kong dollar tranche with tokenized deposits; traditional settlement remained available.

China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade have completed live tokenized-deposit transactions and settlements of tokenized money market funds through EnsembleTX.

Separately, Standard Chartered is working with Fireblocks to embed banking capabilities in Fireblocks’ platform and provide access to digital-asset businesses. HashKey has joined that initiative. Standard Chartered plans to extend the deposit service to other markets.