Ant Group's international arm plans to be the first to apply for a stablecoin issuance license in Hong Kong, with its business scale potentially exceeding $150 billion
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Ant Group's international arm plans to be the first to apply for a stablecoin issuance license in Hong Kong, with its business scale potentially exceeding $150 billion
Ant International is accelerating investments and expanding partnerships in global asset management, deploying its innovations in AI, blockchain, and stablecoins into reliable, large-scale applications.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOn June 12, according to Bloomberg, Ant International plans to submit its application for a stablecoin issuance license to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) as soon as possible after the Stablecoin Ordinance takes effect in August. The license will support cross-border payments and global treasury management operations. Meanwhile, reporting by Hong Kong’s Economic Times states that Ant International has responded: “We welcome the Hong Kong Legislative Council's passage of the Stablecoin Bill. The company will submit its application once the law comes into force on August 1 and the relevant channels are open. We hope to contribute further to Hong Kong’s development as a future international financial center.” Ant International is accelerating investments and expanding partnerships in global asset management, driving large-scale, real-world applications of its innovations in AI, blockchain, and stablecoins.
Stablecoins are special crypto assets pegged to fiat currencies and subject to regulation. With high transparency, they can reduce costs and improve efficiency in cross-border finance, and have seen rapid growth in recent years. Hong Kong has been actively building itself into a WEB3.0 financial hub, positioning Hong Kong-dollar-pegged stablecoins as a key component of future financial infrastructure. In late May, the Legislative Council passed the Hong Kong Stablecoin Bill, bringing under regulatory oversight the issuance of stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and other fiat currencies. This aims to strengthen the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities in Hong Kong, ensuring financial stability while promoting financial innovation.
(In 2024, Ant International became one of the first participants in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s "Ensemble" liquidity management sandbox initiative. Its Whale platform, together with partners, achieved multiple breakthroughs in October that year.)
Currently, major competitors of Ant International such as U.S.-based Stripe, PayPal, and card networks Visa and MasterCard have already actively entered the U.S. stablecoin issuance ecosystem. Ant International is the first globally recognized fintech firm with extensive treasury management experience to clearly announce it will be among the first to apply for a stablecoin issuance license from the Hong Kong government.
Ant International Already Manages Over $300 Billion Globally via Blockchain
As the parent company of Alipay, Ant Group has made internationalization a core strategic priority. Ant International focuses overseas on serving enterprise and institutional clients in cross-border financial services, building platforms for cross-border payment collaboration. Following Ant Group’s 2024 restructuring, Ant International began operating independently, forming four core business segments: cross-border wallet payments and digital solutions (Alipay+), cross-border corporate account services (WorldFirst), global merchant payment services (Antom), and scenario-based financial services (EmFi). Earlier reports from Bloomberg indicated that Ant International generated over $3 billion in revenue in 2024, achieving profitability for two consecutive years, and is considering a potential listing in Hong Kong.
According to reports, Ant International’s global treasury technology services unit manages proprietary and client funds flows across more than 100 currencies within its four core businesses. It supports offline digital payments in over 70 markets, online e-commerce payments in more than 100 currencies, operates global accounts for 1.2 million SMEs worldwide, and manages treasury flows between millions of enterprises and banks globally—encompassing over 100 currencies in both proprietary and client funds.
In competing with global giants, Ant International has developed two core treasury technology products: Whale, a blockchain-powered real-time cross-border fund transfer platform, and Falcon, an AI-driven foreign exchange large model. According to Bloomberg, Ant International processed over $1 trillion in total transaction volume in 2024. Previously, the company disclosed that over one-third of this volume was handled through the Whale platform using blockchain technology. Based on this calculation, more than $300 billion in funds were managed globally using Ant International’s blockchain technology in 2024 alone. If half of this volume could transition to stablecoin applications, the scale of stablecoin transactions within its existing business would exceed $150 billion.
Deep Involvement in Government Sandbox Programs, Using Hong Kong as Key Global Launchpad
Sources indicate that Ant International also plans to apply for stablecoin-related licenses from regulators in Luxembourg and Singapore. However, Hong Kong remains a strategic focal point in Ant International’s global expansion. At the 2024 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant Group and Ant International, said, “We hope Ant can contribute to making Hong Kong a world-leading tokenization and Web3 fintech hub.”
As early as May 2023, Ant Group became one of the first participants in the HKMA’s “Digital Hong Kong Dollar” pilot program, with AlipayHK—the Hong Kong version of “Alipay”—involved in the trial.
In 2024, the Whale platform joined the HKMA’s “Ensemble Project” liquidity management sandbox and achieved two milestones in October: completing the first-ever interbank HKD blockchain test transaction with HSBC, enabling 24/7 real-time interbank transfers that enhance efficiency and lower operational costs; and successfully executing, together with Standard Chartered Bank, the first HKD-denominated internal corporate transaction, demonstrating practical application within real commercial environments and bank systems. In May 2025, Ant International partnered again with HSBC to launch Hong Kong’s first blockchain-settlement “tokenized deposit service,” allowing customers to make real-time HKD and USD payments using their corporate wallets.
Ant International maintains diversified presence across major global markets and was also an early participant in financial innovation sandbox pilots organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In November 2023, Ant International joined MAS’s Project Guardian to explore building open and interoperable digital asset trading platforms and liquidity tools based on public blockchains.
Beyond local Hong Kong banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, since 2023 Ant International has established partnerships with Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, OCBC, DBS Bank, and BNP Paribas—systemically important banks at both global and regional levels. On this, Leo Li, General Manager of Platform Technology at Ant International, clearly defines the company’s role as “building technological bridges for the financial services industry.” The broad cooperation with major institutions reflects industry recognition of its technology’s security, reliability, and compliance.
“Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center does not stem from the number of bank facades in Central, but ultimately from global recognition of its flexible, efficient treasury management, low transaction costs, suitability for practical business needs, and a secure, multi-layered ecosystem supported by traditional financial institutions,” said Xiao Geng, member of the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit expert group and Chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of International Finance. He added, “Developing stablecoin platforms through technological and ecosystem advancement, and encouraging diverse, large-scale applications in real-world scenarios, can encourage multinational corporations to choose Hong Kong as their treasury management hub—making a significant contribution to consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong’s position as an international financial center.”
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