Middle East - OUT2ALL - Fintech

HSBC RedCoin Officially Named, HKMA‑Licensed HKD Stablecoin Set to Launch Within This Year

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:13:15 +0000

Release Date: 2026‑09‑30
Source: Commerce Wire
 
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited has officially named its Hong Kong‑dollar stablecoin HSBC RedCoin. Granted the Stablecoin Issuer Licence No. FRS02 by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the product will be issued under Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656), and is scheduled to launch within this year.
 
As disclosed by HSBC, RedCoin is pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar. Each token is fully backed by high‑quality, highly‑liquid assets held in segregated accounts and redeemable at par value. Its operations will comply with HKMA requirements covering regulatory supervision, anti‑money‑laundering and counter‑terrorist‑financing standards. The FRS02 licence was issued by the HKMA on 10 April 2026 and is recorded in the HKMA’s Register of Licensed Stablecoin Issuers.
 
Phased Roll‑out with Defined Use‑Cases
 
HSBC will roll out RedCoin in phases, with distinct use‑cases available at each stage.
 
Initial Phase (Retail Use‑Cases)
 
Peer‑to‑peer (P2P) transfers and peer‑to‑merchant (P2M) payments will be enabled. Users can access RedCoin via PayMe and the HSBC HK mobile banking app for daily person‑to‑person remittances and merchant settlement in Hong Kong.
 
Future Expanded Use‑Cases
 

Corporate and commercial settlements: Support inter‑business fund transfers and operational payment settlements for corporate clients.

Tokenised investment products: Serve as on‑chain settlement medium for tokenised asset transactions.

Cross‑border payments: Explore cross‑border fund transfers leveraging HSBC’s global network.

Programmable financial solutions: Explore innovative applications including conditional payments and supply‑chain finance.

 
HSBC released consumer research covering over 1,000 Hong‑Kong‑based customers. The survey shows 74 % of respondents are aware of stablecoin use‑cases, while 60 % correctly understand stablecoins as fiat‑backed digital assets. Respondents identified clear regulatory guidance, public education, fraud‑prevention mechanisms and smooth redemption channels as key factors to boost public confidence.
 
Regulatory Framework & Risk Notice
 
The HKMA publishes its Register of Licensed Stablecoin Issuers for public verification. The HKMA advises the public to guard against fraudulent stablecoin schemes and only use products via authorised channels of licensed issuers.
 
Risk Notice: HSBC RedCoin is not yet live. All product details, launch timelines and availability of individual use‑cases are subject to official HSBC announcements. Any tokens bearing the RedCoin name issued by unauthorised parties are fraudulent. Users are advised to exercise caution.

U.S. Takes Down Xinbi Guarantee, a $24 Billion Global Criminal Crypto Trading Hub

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:18:31 +0000

Commerce Wire｜12 September 2026Sources: United States Department of State, US Treasury OFAC, United States Department of Justice, Elliptic, UNODCOn 9 September, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Chinese‑language online trading platform Xinbi Guarantee as a major transnational criminal organisation. Concurrent sanctions were imposed on two supporting entities, Singapore‑based SafeW Technology and Cambodia‑based Anwen Technology. On the same day, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a coordinated law‑enforcement operation, seizing the platform’s Telegram operating channels, taking custody of two primary receiving wallets and freezing approximately USD 52.8 million in crypto‑assets linked to money‑laundering activities across 52 associated wallet addresses. The Scam Center Strike Force has frozen a total of USD 9.38 billion in fraud‑related crypto‑assets to date. According to estimates from the U.S. Treasury Department, the platform has processed more than USD 24 billion in transactions since commencing operations in 2022.The action was authorised under Executive Order 13581, as amended by Executive Order 13863, and Executive Order 14390. The Treasury Department stated that Xinbi Guarantee had long functioned as critical infrastructure for transnational cyber‑fraud and money‑laundering operations. Its services were reportedly utilised by North Korean hacking groups and multiple OFAC‑sanctioned criminal entities, including Jinbei Group Co., Limited and affiliated organisations under the Prince Group. The U.S. Department of State added that cyber‑criminal syndicates based in Southeast Asia defraud American victims out of billions of United States dollars each year. The sanctions and enforcement actions form a key initiative within United States programmes to counter predatory scams targeting its citizens.Law‑enforcement authorities conducted simultaneous crackdowns along three dimensions: communications, financial assets and overseas operational sites. All Telegram channels and associated accounts operated by the platform were blocked, severing its primary client communication channels. Working alongside stablecoin issuer Tether and the United States Secret Service, investigators identified on‑chain addresses linked to criminal activity and secured the related crypto‑assets. Field operatives, together with local police in Madagascar, dismantled 13 fraud compounds reliant on the platform. More than 3,200 digital devices used in criminal activities were seized, and roughly 400 individuals were taken into custody. Approximately 30 core operators of the compounds are scheduled to be repatriated for investigation.Built upon the Telegram ecosystem, Xinbi Guarantee was launched around 2022. After the successive takedowns of Huiwang Guarantee and Tudou Guarantee, it absorbed substantial black‑market traffic and rapidly grew into one of the world’s largest illicit crypto escrow marketplaces. Modelling the third‑party escrow mechanism used in e‑commerce, the platform provided custodial services for funds to cyber‑fraud groups and underground merchants. Criminal actors could order fake‑investment websites, acquire money‑laundering channels and recruit labour for fraud compounds on the platform. Funds were settled to merchants only after criminal services were delivered, with the platform collecting commissions on each transaction. The U.S. Department of Justice described this escrow mechanism as turning the platform into a one‑stop underground marketplace for cyber‑fraud. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimated total transaction volumes close to USD 30 billion, ranking it as the second‑largest illicit trading market on record.Following news of the asset freeze, on‑chain monitoring revealed platform operators attempting to convert around USD 2.8 million worth of USDT into USDD via decentralised exchanges in an apparent bid to evade seizure. Tom Robinson, Founder and Chief Scientist at Elliptic, noted that claims regarding the decentralised nature of USDD remain contested, as its collateral pool still includes USDT susceptible to freezing. Converting tokens cannot fully eliminate monitoring‑related risks. Robinson analysed that Xinbi Guarantee might attempt to re‑launch under a new brand name following the precedent set by Huiwang Guarantee. Nevertheless, this large‑scale enforcement action has severely damaged confidence among underground‑market participants. Criminal users now recognise wallet addresses can be identified and frozen at short notice, undermining the trust upon which underground trading fundamentally depends.According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Southeast‑Asian cyber‑fraud generated an estimated annual revenue of USD 40 billion in 2025, and related criminal activities continue to globalise. Industry observers note that shutting down front‑end marketplaces alone cannot eradicate the entire criminal value chain; underlying criminal demand, operational teams and money‑laundering conduits remain intact. Cross‑border regulatory strategies are gradually shifting away from targeting only front‑end trading platforms, prioritising enforcement against supporting payment providers, communications infrastructure and cross‑border fund‑transfer channels. This operation marks an escalating long‑term global campaign against money‑laundering marketplaces built upon cryptocurrencies.Sources: U.S. Department of State press release Dismantling the Transnational Criminal Organisation “Xinbi Guarantee”, 9 September 2026; U.S. Treasury OFAC announcement, 9 September 2026; statement by the U.S. Department of Justice Scam Center Strike Force, 9 September 2026; Elliptic on‑chain analysis report, 9 September 2026; UNODC Report Southeast Asia Cyber‑Fraud Situation Report 2025.

Research on ChainMaker’s Core Technology System, Global Benefit Coverage and Latest International Development Progress (2026)

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:44:20 +0000

(Source: ITU, ISO, AIIB Digital Infrastructure Think Tank, Financial Stability Board Industry Tracking Report | August 2026)1. Overall PositioningChainMaker is an open-source consortium blockchain underlying technology system independently developed and fully controllable by China, jointly researched and developed by the Beijing Microchip Blockchain and Edge Computing Research Institute, universities and industrial institutions. As one of the few commercial blockchain infrastructure platforms with complete technological sovereignty worldwide, it features high performance, regulability, cross-border compliance and hardware-level security. It mainly supports scenarios such as cross-border trade, international finance, green carbon governance and global supply chain collaboration. It has ranked first in China’s underlying consortium blockchain market share for consecutive years, and its technological capabilities are gradually exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East and other regions.2. Core Specialized Technologies (Internationally Recognized Key Technical System)2.1 Modular Plug-and-Play Underlying ArchitectureChainMaker adopts a component-based decoupling design, which completely separates consensus mechanism, network transmission, smart contract execution, data storage and fine-grained permission control. It can flexibly assemble blockchain links according to regulatory rules of different countries and industry business needs without overall reconstruction of the underlying architecture. It is compatible with the EU GDPR data protection regulation and cross-border data supervision requirements in Southeast Asia. This architectural design has been included in the core technical reference scope of the ISO Blockchain BaaS international standard.2.2 Self-developed High-performance Consensus and Cross-domain Network TechnologyIt is equipped with the independently developed MaxBFT pipelined Byzantine consensus algorithm, which optimizes node voting interaction logic and greatly reduces network communication complexity while maintaining the security threshold of tolerating 1/3 malicious nodes. Matching the Liquid high-speed P2P cross-domain network, it supports NAT traversal of wide-area networks and dynamic networking of transnational multi-nodes. The stable on-chain transaction throughput reaches 100,000 TPS, and the final transaction confirmation efficiency is significantly better than international mainstream consortium blockchains such as Hyperledger Fabric, which can support large concurrent cross-border business scenarios on a global scale.2.3 Software-Hardware Integrated Computing Power Acceleration SystemThis is the core technical barrier of ChainMaker with international competitiveness:First, the 96-core RISC-V architecture dedicated blockchain acceleration chip realizes hardware-level acceleration of smart contract execution and digital signature verification, with processing efficiency dozens of times higher than traditional software solutions.Second, the homomorphic encryption acceleration dedicated chip launched in 2026, based on the in-memory computing architecture, achieves internationally leading efficiency of ciphertext data operation, which can realize "data available but not visible", supporting cross-border financial credit granting and cross-institutional government-enterprise data collaboration scenarios.2.4 Native Adaptation of the National Commercial Cryptography System and Cross-chain Interoperability SystemThe underlying layer of ChainMaker natively integrates the National Commercial Cryptography algorithm system, fully adapting SM2 asymmetric encryption algorithm, SM3 cryptographic hash algorithm and SM4 symmetric encryption algorithm. It builds a security trust base independent of overseas cryptography systems, eliminating technological dependence and backdoor risks from the bottom layer. Meanwhile, it is natively equipped with a cross-chain bridge interoperability component, which can realize credible data exchange with international mainstream heterogeneous blockchain networks such as Hyperledger Fabric, and has the compatibility capability to access various global digital infrastructures.3. Technology Benefit Coverage: Industrial Value Radiating the WorldTracking data from international think tanks shows that the application of ChainMaker has covered 64 countries and regions around the world, benefiting transnational financial institutions, international trade enterprises, regional economic organizations, small and medium-sized market entities and public governance departments of various countries:1. Cross-border Trade and International FinanceThe global trade chain network built based on ChainMaker has connected 16 overseas RMB clearing banks, serving more than 300,000 cross-border trade entities and supporting trillion-level international trade scale. It shortens the traditional review process of paper bill of lading, customs clearance and trade financing from weeks to days, reduces compliance costs and capital occupation pressure for global foreign trade enterprises, and improves the digital circulation efficiency of global trade.2. ASEAN Regional Green Carbon Financial GovernanceChainMaker serves as the underlying technical support for the ASEAN carbon trading mutual recognition network, realizing on-chain certification, transnational verification and carbon asset confirmation of emission reduction data between China and Southeast Asian countries. It solves the industry pain points of inconsistent global green trade data standards and high verification costs, helping transnational enterprises obtain international green trade certification efficiently. It has been listed as a benchmark case of regional green finance digitalization by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).3. Global Inclusive Finance and SME ServicesRelying on the privacy computing capability of the National Commercial Cryptography system, financial institutions can complete credit assessment and financing credit granting for cross-border small and medium-sized enterprises without decrypting their core operational data, alleviating the common problem of financing difficulties and high financing costs for global foreign trade SMEs.4. Public Governance and Industrial Digitalization ImplementationIn China, ChainMaker is applied to real estate registration, tax collection and management, judicial evidence storage, energy trading, carbon inclusiveness and other scenarios, realizing credible sharing of government data across departments and whole-process traceability of industrial chain data. Its technical architecture and implementation model provide a reference template for emerging market countries to build independent digital trust infrastructure.4. Latest International Development Progress in 2026 (as of August)4.1 In-depth Participation in the Formulation of Global Blockchain International StandardsThe ISO international standard Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) Technical Framework and Functional Requirements, led by China and jointly participated by experts from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Portugal and other countries, has been officially established. The modular architecture, National Commercial Cryptography security system and cross-chain interoperability mechanism of ChainMaker serve as core technical references for standard compilation. Meanwhile, ChainMaker has successfully passed the blockchain security performance evaluation of ITU and the international information security certification of TÜV SÜD, with its technical compliance recognized by global third-party authoritative institutions.4.2 Landing of Important Cooperation in the International Financial SectorIn August 2026, the Bank of China reached a strategic cooperation with the National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center to upgrade the credible base of the global trade chain based on ChainMaker, optimizing the system of cross-border payment, international trade financing and transnational capital settlement. A research report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) pointed out that this cooperation further strengthens the credible circulation capability of global trade data and improves the efficiency of cross-border capital turnover.4.3 Opening of Core Hardware Technology and International Commercial VerificationChainMaker opened the technical specification of the 96-core dedicated blockchain acceleration chip to the world. The European Semiconductor Association and the ASEAN Financial Technology Federation launched technical testing and scenario verification successively. This hardware solution has been commercially deployed on a large scale in ASEAN cross-border logistics and overseas branches of Chinese-funded transnational enterprises, becoming one of the few commercially implemented dedicated computing hardware products for blockchain worldwide.4.4 Continuous Expansion of Global Industry-University-Research and Open-source EcosystemThe ChainMaker International Scholar Cooperation Program has supported 40 global researchers, jointly tackling cutting-edge topics such as cross-chain interoperability, integration of central bank digital currency and consortium blockchain, and global carbon asset registration with top overseas universities including the National University of Singapore and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. More than 20 overseas development teams have joined the open-source community, completing adaptation of international mainstream cloud infrastructure and heterogeneous blockchain networks, and the global open-source ecosystem is gradually improving.5. Prospective Evaluation by International InstitutionsAIIB and global digital economy think tanks judge that against the backdrop of restructuring global digital trade and deepening cross-border data compliance supervision, ChainMaker, with its core advantages of independent and controllable technology, software-hardware collaboration, security guarantee of National Commercial Cryptography and open-source neutrality, is reshaping the global commercial blockchain technology pattern. In the future, it will continue to deepen its layout in international trade, green finance and cross-border public governance, becoming an important part of global digital trust infrastructure. It will form complementary coordination with the SWIFT global settlement network and digital infrastructure of central banks of various countries, promoting the development of the global digital economy towards credibility, efficiency and security.

BOCHK and Ant International Enter into Strategic Partnership

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 18:58:01 +0000

HONG KONG, 20 August 2026 — Bank of China (Hong Kong) (“BOCHK”) and Ant International have announced a strategic partnership. Building on their long‑term collaboration since 2013, both sides will combine BOCHK’s banking expertise and Ant International’s fintech and AI capabilities.BOCHK will deliver account and settlement banking services for Alipay+ across Southeast Asia. Integration between AlipayHK and BOCHK retail banking services will enable bank‑account and credit‑card linkage for local users. The parties will jointly develop AI‑powered real‑time treasury and liquidity management solutions for global corporates, together with cross‑border fund tools for SMEs. Joint exploration will also cover blockchain and tokenisation use‑cases.Sun Yu, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of BOCHK, remarked the partnership will advance Hong Kong fintech and foster cross‑border financial cooperation in Southeast Asia. Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant International, said the alliance aims to deliver seamless, inclusive financial experiences for businesses and consumers.