Banking giant HSBC launches its own cryptocurrency for 3.3 million users

Banking giant HSBC has launched its first stablecoin in Hong Kong. The digital coin, RedCoin, will be available to over 3.3 million users of the PayMe payment app. In doing so, the bank is taking a major step towards the daily use of crypto as a means of payment.

RedCoin is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and can be redeemed at a fixed ratio of one to one. This means that the currency must retain its value, in contrast to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), whose price can fluctuate greatly.

From Friday 23 October, RedCoin will be available in phases via PayMe. Users can activate a digital wallet in the coming days and transfer money to friends and family.

They can also pay with RedCoin at more than 100,000 affiliated stores and companies.

HSBC received approval from Hong Kong's financial regulator in April to issue stablecoins. The bank was thus one of the first license holders under the new crypto rules.

The safekeeping of the digital currency is provided by HSBC Digital Assets Custody.

The bank has bigger plans with RedCoin. Later this year, the coin should also become available through HSBC's regular mobile banking app.

Customers will soon be able to invest in tokenised financial products. These are traditional investments that are digitally recorded and traded. Among other things, HSBC wants to offer a digital variant of its money market fund in Hong Kong dollars.

In addition, the bank wants to make RedCoin available to companies and large financial institutions.

HSBC is not the only party betting on stablecoins in Hong Kong. In August, Anchorpoint Financial already started rolling out its HKDAP stablecoin via crypto exchange HashKey, initially aimed at professional investors and institutions.

With RedCoin, HSBC is targeting millions of ordinary users who can use the digital currency for daily payments right from the start.