HSBC Brings Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin To PayMe As Retail Rollout Begins

TL;DR: HSBC has launched its Hong Kong dollar-backed RedCoin for payments through PayMe, with wallet activation set to expand to millions of users over the coming days. HSBC has made its first stablecoin a consumer payments product, rather than an institutional settlement experiment. On Friday, the bank announced that RedCoin, a Hong Kong dollar-denominated token with the ticker RCHKD, is launching through PayMe, its widely used local payments app. The bank describes RedCoin as licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority under the city's Stablecoins Ordinance. That gives the launch a different starting point from many crypto-payment pilots: it is being introduced through an established banking interface, with customer onboarding and financial-crime controls built into the existing product. The PayMe distribution advantage More than 3.3 million people use PayMe, according to HSBC. They are not all being switched over to stablecoins in a single instant. The bank says users will be able to activate wallets in stages over the coming days, then send RCHKD to friends and family or pay participating merchants directly. HSBC says more than 100,000 merchants are in the paymen...