The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has embarked on a groundbreaking collaboration with the European Central Bank (ECB) to explore the digital euro project, marking its first participation outside the EU.
Partnering with the Banque de France (BDF), HKMA aims to test interoperability between their respective wholesale CBDC infrastructures – BDF’s DL3S2 and HKMA’s Ensemble Sandbox.
The focus is on enhancing real-time cross-border and cross-currency payments efficiency, and fostering interoperability between financial market infrastructures across jurisdictions.
Denis Beau, first deputy governor of BDF, emphasized the initiative’s goal to improve cross-border payments, leveraging tokenized forms of the Hong Kong dollar and Euro through payment versus payment mechanisms.
HKMA’s Project Ensemble, initiated in March, underscores their commitment to exploring tokenization use cases like green bonds, carbon credits, and other real-world assets.
Howard Lee, deputy chief executive of HKMA, expressed optimism about collaborating with BDF to advance global tokenization and promote financial market connectivity through innovative cross-border payment solutions.
Global banking heavyweight Banco Santander is quietly laying the groundwork to enter the stablecoin space, eyeing fiat-pegged digital tokens as part of a broader strategy to offer crypto services to retail clients.
Crypto exchange Bitget has introduced a new investment product, BGUSD, a yield-generating stable asset tied to real-world financial instruments like U.S. Treasury bills and top-tier money market funds.
A growing number of banks are quietly integrating Ripple’s blockchain infrastructure to improve cross-border transactions, opting for a hybrid model that doesn’t require replacing their legacy systems.
Several of America’s largest banks—including entities tied to JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo—are exploring the creation of a shared stablecoin, according to sources familiar with the discussions.