HSBC Launches RedCoin Stablecoin to 3.3 Million PayMe Users in Hong Kong
Published October 23, 2026, 05:37 AM PKT. Based on HSBC statements reported by HK01 and carried by KuCoin and BBX on October 22, 2026 (primary reporting), and HSBC's September 30, 2026 RedCoin naming announcement (secondary sources).
Hong Kong's biggest bank has put its own stablecoin into the pockets of ordinary shoppers. HSBC has begun a phased rollout of RedCoin, its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, to more than 3.3 million PayMe users from Friday, October 23, 2026, according to HSBC statements reported by HK01 and carried by KuCoin and BBX on October 22. At launch, users can send RedCoin to other people and pay merchants through PayMe, which HSBC says reaches 100,000 merchants. HSBC expects every PayMe user to have access before the weekend, with the rollout phased to avoid overloading its servers. The move matters because of where it lands: not on a crypto exchange, but inside a payment app millions of Hong Kong residents already use every day, turning a licensed bank stablecoin into an everyday checkout option rather than a trading asset.
The phased rollout to 3.3 million PayMe users
The rollout is deliberately gradual, and HSBC has said why. The bank will introduce RedCoin to PayMe users in phases from Friday, according to the reports, and expects every PayMe user to have access before the weekend. The phased approach is meant to prevent excessive demand on the bank's servers, HSBC said, and the first phase prioritizes reliable service over new features. PayMe's head said RedCoin will be accessible exclusively through PayMe and the HSBC Hong Kong mobile banking app, and that users can activate a RedCoin wallet without a minimum balance or account-opening requirements. Users update PayMe and choose the RedCoin wallet for instant transfers through an interface closely resembling the existing PayMe interface, according to the reports. To mark the launch, users will receive transaction vouchers, reward money and other bonuses, HSBC said. HSBC gave no target for RedCoin circulation, according to the reports, a notable omission for a launch of this size: readers should not read early user numbers, when they appear, as a measure of how much RedCoin is actually circulating.
The 1:1 Hong Kong dollar peg and segregated reserves
RedCoin is designed to track the Hong Kong dollar one-for-one, and HSBC has described the backing in terms regulators require. Each RedCoin will be redeemable one-to-one for Hong Kong dollars and fully backed by high-quality, highly liquid assets held in segregated accounts, according to HSBC's RedCoin materials cited in the September naming coverage. That structure is the core promise of a licensed stablecoin: the token is a claim on segregated reserves, not an unbacked crypto asset, and redemption at par is the mechanism that keeps the peg honest. HSBC Hong Kong's chief executive said funds, assets and information are shifting from traditional infrastructure to always-on, data-rich and increasingly programmable digital networks, according to the launch reports, framing RedCoin as the bank's answer to that shift. The bank also said RedCoin's transaction speed and other features will align with PayMe's existing wallet, while offering additional incentives for merchant payments. What HSBC has not disclosed, in the reporting so far, is the blockchain RedCoin runs on or how external wallets will interact with it, so for now RedCoin is a payment tool inside HSBC's own apps, not a token that can be freely moved to any wallet.
The HKMA licence and the rival already live
RedCoin arrives under Hong Kong's stablecoin licensing regime, and HSBC is not the first licensed issuer to market. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted HSBC and Anchorpoint the city's first stablecoin issuer licences in April 2026, according to the September coverage, and Hong Kong's stablecoin licensing regime took effect in August 2025. Anchorpoint, a joint venture of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HKT and Animoca Brands, began a phased rollout of its HKDAP stablecoin in August 2026, so HSBC enters a market where a licensed rival is already live. HSBC named the token RedCoin on September 30, 2026, saying the branding reflects the bank's heritage and its long-standing red identity in the region, and said at the time that no HSBC stablecoins had yet been issued in Hong Kong. The bank also surveyed 1,060 Hong Kong customers, finding that 74 percent could identify at least one stablecoin use case, while 26 percent believed stablecoins were government-issued and 10 percent assumed they paid interest. HSBC has been direct on both misconceptions: RedCoin is issued by a commercial bank under a government licence, not by the government, and paying interest is not a feature of Hong Kong's current stablecoin framework.
From payments to tokenized investments
Payments come first, but HSBC has already mapped the second act. John O'Neill, managing director of HSBC Digital Assets and Currencies, said a stablecoin wallet feature will be added to the HSBC Hong Kong mobile banking app later in 2026, according to the launch reports, enabling users to subscribe to tokenized investment products using RedCoin, including the HSBC Hong Kong Dollar Money Market Fund, with a minimum subscription of HK$100. That step would move RedCoin from a checkout tool into an on-ramp for tokenized funds, inside the same app where customers already bank. HSBC has also completed pilot testing and will subsequently expand use cases to corporate and institutional clients, according to the reports, after a pilot with nearly 100 employees that tested the full process from minting coins and launching wallets to executing actual transfers. The sequence mirrors the bank's stated plan from September: retail payments first, then corporate treasury, wholesale payments and tokenized enterprise asset settlement as Hong Kong's digital asset framework develops. HSBC is also keeping RedCoin separate from its institutional tokenised deposit network, according to the September coverage, so readers should not confuse the two: RedCoin is a licensed retail stablecoin, while tokenised deposits remain a wholesale product.
What RedCoin is not, yet
The honest limits on this story are as important as the launch itself. RedCoin is not, at launch, a token traded on crypto exchanges, and HSBC has said it will be available only through PayMe and the HSBC Hong Kong app. It does not pay interest, it is not issued by the Hong Kong government, and HSBC has not disclosed a circulation target, a blockchain, or redemption mechanics beyond the one-to-one peg and segregated backing. The phased rollout also means not every PayMe user will have access on day one, even though HSBC expects full access before the weekend. Those limits do not diminish the launch: a licensed bank stablecoin reaching 3.3 million retail users and 100,000 merchants is the largest mainstream stablecoin rollout Hong Kong has seen. But they do define what to watch next: how many users actually activate RedCoin wallets, whether merchant usage grows beyond launch bonuses, and when HSBC publishes the blockchain and external wallet details that would let RedCoin travel beyond its own apps.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- HSBC statements reported by HK01, via KuCoin, HSBC Launches Stablecoin RedCoin for PayMe Users in Hong Kong (October 22, 2026), primary reporting
- BBX, HSBC launches stablecoin RedCoin, which PayMe users can use for payments and investments (October 22, 2026), secondary source
- KuCoin, HSBC Launches RedCoin Stablecoin for 3.3 Million PayMe Users (October 22, 2026), secondary source
- HSBC RedCoin naming coverage, HSBC Names Hong Kong Stablecoin RedCoin as Initial Launch Focuses on Payments (September 2026), secondary source
MABOnChain Daily Brief
The key crypto and markets stories in one short, plain-language email. Free. Unsubscribe any time.
Prefer chat? Join us on Telegram Watch on YouTube
Keep reading
a16z Drops the Crypto Label, Rebrands Its Crypto Fund as a16z Frontier for AI and Robotics
Andreessen Horowitz said on October 22, 2026 that it is renaming its crypto investment arm, a16z Crypto, to a16z Frontier and expanding its mandate beyond crypto startups to frontier startups building new technologies and markets that may take years to develop, including artificial intelligence, robotics and networks connecting people and machines. General partner Chris Dixon said the move is an expansion, not a retreat, and that the firm will continue to invest in crypto and related ventures and advocate for sensible crypto regulation. The renamed unit has raised nearly $10 billion across five funds since launching in 2018, backed Coinbase, Solana and Uniswap, and its latest fund, announced in May 2026, raised $2.2 billion.
Robinhood Wins Dubai DFSA License, Plans 2027 Middle East Launch From DIFC Hub
Robinhood Markets said on October 22, 2026 that it has received authorization from the Dubai Financial Services Authority to introduce its retail investing platform in the Middle East from the Dubai International Financial Centre, where it will base its Middle East and North Africa regional headquarters. The authorization covers trading and custody across all 10 DFSA-approved asset classes, including equities, crypto, exchange-traded funds and investment tokens, and Robinhood plans to launch its product suite in 2027. Salah Kaddoura, senior executive officer and president of Robinhood MENA, will lead the local team, and the move extends a 2026 expansion run that already took in Singapore and Canada.
Coinkite Sued Over Coldcard Flaw Linked to $140M in Bitcoin Theft, With Claim Founders Knew Since May 2025
A proposed class action filed September 11, 2026 in Ontario Superior Court of Justice accuses Toronto hardware wallet maker Coinkite and co-founders Rodolfo Novak and Peter D. Gray of selling Coldcard wallets whose March 2021 firmware generated predictable recovery phrases, allegedly exposing users to thefts now estimated past $140 million in bitcoin. Plaintiff Amir Reza Naderi, who says he lost 1.22940052 BTC on August 6, 2026, alleges the founders knew of the flaw since May 2025 and failed to warn customers directly. Coinkite disputes that account, saying it was unaware of the bug until July 30, 2026, and says it will publish a full postmortem within days. The allegations have not been established in court.
Axis Robotics AXIS Rides Listing Wave and Airdrop Claims, Then Round-Trips 30 Percent From Its High
Axis Robotics token AXIS, the utility token for a platform that pays contributors for simulated robot training data on Base, surged through a crowded listing wave on October 21, 2026 as Season 1 airdrop claims opened, with Binance Alpha, Bitget, MEXC and Upbit all opening trading the same day. CoinGecko data on October 22 put AXIS at about $0.283, up about 10.6 percent in 24 hours, on about $131.9 million of daily volume against a market value of about $46.7 million, after the token peaked at $0.352 on October 21 and slid about 30 percent before recovering. The listing rush, not a new product launch, is what moved the price, and the next unlocks do not arrive until January and April 2027.
NEAR Jumps 7% as Business Launch Targets Private Crypto Treasuries
NEAR rose about 7% to $5.31 on October 21, 2026, a day after NEAR Protocol launched NEAR Business, a private treasury platform that lets teams pay staff and vendors, swap assets and allocate capital across more than 35 blockchains while keeping payroll and treasury balances confidential from the market but legible to auditors, according to NEAR and Stocktwits reporting. The move also landed as a House of Stake vote opened on cutting annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months, and as NEAR Intents passed $32 billion in cumulative volume in the third quarter of 2026.
Solana Alpenglow Goes Live on Mainnet in Biggest Consensus Switch Since Launch
Solana has activated Alpenglow, its first major consensus upgrade, on mainnet on October 21, 2026, replacing the TowerBFT voting system it has used since launch with a new protocol called Votor that targets transaction finality in about 150 milliseconds, down from roughly 12.8 seconds. CryptoBreaking, citing the Solana Foundation Alpenglow dashboard, put activation at about 1:54 pm UTC, in epoch 1064, while the dashboard reading at press time showed finality of about 6.6 seconds and throughput of about 4,721 transactions per second, a reminder that the 150 millisecond figure is a target to converge toward, not an instant day one measurement. The second Alpenglow phase, Rotor, which would replace the Turbine block propagation system, does not activate with Votor and remains unscheduled.
Standard Chartered Signs Definitive Deal to Take Full Ownership of Zodia Custody
Standard Chartered has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Zodia Custody, the institutional digital asset custodian it helped create, turning a takeover first agreed in principle in May into a binding deal. Standard Chartered I H Limited will acquire 100% of Zodia Custody UK Limited, the parent of Zodia's regulated operating entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, with financial terms undisclosed. After completion, Zodia's custody business joins the bank's Securities Services division, while its software and professional services assets move to Zodia Solutions, a new independent entity under SC Ventures backed by bank investors including Northern Trust, NAB Ventures, SBI Ventures and Emirates NBD.
OCC Finalizes First GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rule, Sets January 18, 2027 Start Date
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued the first final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, setting reserve, redemption and capital standards for payment stablecoin issuers under its jurisdiction, effective January 18, 2027. Issuers must hold reserves at least equal to their outstanding stablecoins and generally redeem within two business days, while the agency dropped a proposed presumption that affiliate rewards deals violate the law's yield ban, leaving existing rewards programs to case-by-case review. The rule covers national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and nonbank firms seeking federal qualified issuer status, with a $5 million capital floor, while anti-money-laundering rules will follow in separate rulemaking with the Treasury.
Aave Backs Tokenized SpaceX Shares as Collateral With Strict Guardrails Ahead of 2.43 Billion Share Unlock
Aave risk adviser LlamaRisk has backed listing tokenized SpaceX shares, trading as SPCXc, as collateral on Aave V4's Equities Hub on Base, but only under the hub's toughest terms: a 55% collateral factor, a 6.5% maximum liquidation bonus, a 1,000 basis point risk premium and a 37,000 token supply cap worth about $5.8 million. The caution reflects SpaceX's four months of public trading history and a lock-up calendar that releases 2.43 billion shares, 84% of the current float, between October 26 and December 8, 2026. SPCXc would be collateral-only, with USDC the only borrowable asset, and larger liquidations would depend on redemptions or derivatives hedges because onchain depth is thin.
Drift Exploiter Sends Another $46M in ETH to Tornado Cash, Two-Day Total Hits $109M
Wallets linked to the April 2026 Drift Protocol exploit sent about 18,800 ETH, worth roughly $46 million, into Tornado Cash on October 21, 2026, according to blockchain tracker Onchain Lens, taking the two-day total to 44,510 ETH, worth about $109 million. The move follows the roughly $61 million first tranche on October 20 that MABOnChain reported, and Arkham Intelligence labeled wallets still held about 56,569 ETH, worth roughly $138 million, after the latest deposits. Drift has attributed the April attack, which cost about $295 million, to a North Korean threat group, and victims are claiming through a DFX recovery token scheme that started with a pool of about $3.1 million.
France Proposes MiCA Rules to Hold Crypto Platforms Liable for DeFi Access Failures
France's Treasury, AMF, Banque de France and ACPR published a joint response on October 21, 2026 to the European Commission's MiCA review consultation, proposing that crypto platforms which actively connect customers to DeFi protocols should face liability for certain client losses when they fail to vet protocols or ignore known risks. The proposal would also move supervision of significant crypto firms to ESMA, lower the 15 million daily active user threshold for significant status, and rework MiCA's stablecoin categories after zero asset-referenced tokens were authorized. The Commission's report to EU lawmakers is due by June 30, 2027.
UK High Court Lets 16,000 Victims Appeal Ruling on 61,000 Seized Bitcoin in Qian Zhimin Case
The UK High Court has granted about 16,000 Chinese fraud victims permission to appeal its October 12, 2026 ruling that Chinese law governs property claims over more than 61,000 Bitcoin seized in the Qian Zhimin money laundering case, according to PANews reporting on October 21 that cited Caixin. The appeal keeps alive the victims' bid to claim a share of a stash worth about 3.8 billion pounds, after the original ruling said their claims must be tested under Chinese law rather than English property law. Lawyers at the follow-up hearing also discussed litigation costs from the earlier dispute and how individual applicants can continue or withdraw their claims.
Ether ETFs Pass $1.08B in October Outflows, Biggest Monthly Drain of 2026
U.S. spot Ether ETFs have shed $1.08 billion so far in October 2026, the biggest monthly outflow of the year and the largest since November 2025, after Tuesday added $26 million to the drain, according to SoSoValue data reported by Cointelegraph. The withdrawals have erased September's $832 million in net inflows and left year to date net inflows at about $485 million, while Ether has fallen 9.7% in October to $2,438. Bitcoin funds moved the other way at the start of the week, pulling in $527 million on Monday before adding $23 million on Tuesday.
Fake Ngrave Security Alerts Drain $2.56M From 70 Wallets
Belgian hardware wallet maker NGRAVE disclosed on October 19, 2026 that attackers hijacked a third party push notification provider for its LIQUID companion app and sent fake security alerts to users on October 17, tricking them into entering recovery phrases on a counterfeit website and draining about $2.56 million from 70 wallets across four blockchains. Bitcoin accounted for $1.77 million of the losses, followed by $454,000 in XRP, $316,000 in Ethereum based assets and $18,000 in Stellar. NGRAVE says its ZERO hardware wallets were never compromised, and its chief executive admitted the company had absolutely and utterly failed in its most basic security duty.
Zcash Jumps 10% as NU7 Locks In Mainnet Activation for 25-Second Blocks
Zcash jumped about 10% on October 21, 2026, trading near $1,260, after developers set the mainnet activation height for NU7, the network upgrade that cuts Zcash block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The activation height is the block number at which every node switches to the new rules, and NU7 pairs the threefold speedup with a Network Sustainability Mechanism that routes 60% of each block's transaction fees into a reserve paid back out over time. ZEC has gained roughly 45% in the past week and about 138% over 30 days, pushing its market capitalization back above $20 billion for the first time since 2016.
Qubic Restarts Blockchain and Opens Recovery Claims After $1.4M Wallet-Seed Hack
Qubic has restarted its blockchain and opened a recovery-claims platform after a wallet-seed vulnerability drained about $1.4 million in QU tokens from 1,404 accounts, the project said in its latest update. The network resumed processing ticks at 8:00 pm on October 19, advancing past tick 85,371,949 where it was halted on Sunday, October 18, after the project’s Computor validators approved a recovery plan and the first batch of recovered funds was returned to verified owners. Qubic says 87.1% of the stolen tokens stayed immobilized on the paused network while 12.9% went to MEXC, which froze the receiving account, and it warns that any wallet created with its web wallet before version 4.26.4, released October 19, should be treated as insecure. Affected users have until May 1, 2027 to submit claims through the project’s sole official reclaim site.
CME Logs First Trades in Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap Futures With FalconX-GSR Debut Block Trade
CME Group confirmed on October 20, 2026 that FalconX and GSR executed the first block trade in its new Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures, with trading now underway on the world's largest derivatives venue. The launch extends CME's single-asset crypto futures lineup to 11 tokens and makes UNI the first DeFi protocol token with standalone CME futures, in standard 10,000-UNI and micro 1,000-UNI sizes trading 24 hours a day. CME's crypto futures and options business has averaged more than 242,000 contracts a day in 2026, about $7.9 billion in notional value, with its five earlier altcoin futures this year adding nearly $2 billion in year-to-date notional.
SkyAI Sells Entire Solana Treasury, Launches $201.3M Tender Offer
SkyAI, the Nasdaq-listed company formerly known as Sharps Technology, has sold its entire Solana treasury and launched a $201.3 million cash tender offer to repurchase up to 95% of its shares and warrants, according to an October 19, 2026 SEC filing. The company held $223.8 million in cash and zero SOL as of October 16, reversing a strategy that at its peak held more than 2 million SOL bought for over $400 million. The $3-per-share offer expires October 29, but major shareholder Bastion Trading, with about 9.99% of the stock, is refusing to participate and wants at least $3.50 plus an independent review of the SOL sales.
Ireland Moves Another 500 BTC From Clifton Collins' Seized Wallets to Coinbase Prime
A wallet linked to convicted Irish drug trafficker Clifton Collins moved 500 BTC, worth about $41.5 million, to Coinbase Prime on October 20, 2026, the fifth 500-BTC tranche recovered from his long-thought-lost Bitcoin fortune this year. Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence flagged the transfer; about 2,500 BTC have now moved from the wallets in 2026, while roughly 3,500 BTC worth about $290 million remain. Collins bought about 6,000 BTC in 2011 and 2012 at roughly $5 each, printed the private keys on paper and hid them in a fishing rod case, and lost access in 2017. Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau, with help from Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, began opening the wallets in March 2026.
Stablecoin Transfers Quadruple to $891B in Q3 as U.S. Banks Test the Rails, Coinbase Study Finds
Research conducted for Coinbase by The Block Pro Research found that adjusted stablecoin transfer volume hit $891 billion in the third quarter of 2026, more than four times the level of early 2023, with over $400 million moving per hour and 73% of volume settling outside U.S. banking hours. The study, titled The Always-On Dollar, says seven of the ten largest U.S. banks have tested stablecoins or tokenized deposits for settlement, with the remaining three announcing plans to do so, while 293 million blockchain addresses now hold stablecoins, more than the combined card bases of American Express and Discover.
ZachXBT Says 87% of FreedomXMR Inflows on Hyperliquid Are Illicit Funds
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT said on October 20, 2026 that more than 87% of the funds flowing into FreedomXMR, a centralized exchange service on Hyperliquid Core, are tied to illicit activity, according to reporting by crypto.news and PANews based on his published investigation. ZachXBT traced more than $20 million in inflows above a $10,000 review threshold to ransomware payments, cryptocurrency exploits, malware and social engineering attacks, including the September 2026 incidents at DCENT Wallet, Fetch.ai and Axelar, plus an October exploit on the Gamdom gambling platform. He also alleged the service's operator sourced Monero liquidity through KuCoin, identifying more than 3,000 deposits from associated addresses.