HKMA Moves Project Ensemble to 24/7 Settlement in Tokenized Central Bank Money
Twelve banks in Hong Kong's pilot can now settle tokenized-deposit trades around the clock. Standard Chartered launched a corporate product on it the same day.
Hong Kong's central bank says its tokenization pilot now settles around the clock. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced Monday that Ensemble TX, the pilot phase of Project Ensemble, now supports "interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions in tokenised Central Bank Money (CeBM) on a 24/7 basis."
The pilot has also grown. The HKMA says 12 banks and 20 "industry pioneers" now take part. The banks include HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong), China Construction Bank (Asia) and ICBC (Asia). Pioneers include BlackRock, Ant International and China Asset Management (Hong Kong).
What changed
Tokenized deposits are bank deposits issued as tokens on a blockchain. They're still bank money, held at a regulated bank. When a customer of one bank pays a customer of another, the two banks still have to settle with each other.
Until now, that last step ran through Hong Kong's dollar real-time gross settlement system, which keeps business hours. Ensemble TX started real-value trades in November 2025 on that basis. Now banks can settle in a tokenized form of central bank money, at any hour. The HKMA says that lets participants settle "beyond conventional operating hours."
HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue said Ensemble has moved "from experimentation and piloting to a new phase focused on promoting the commercialisation of tokenisation applications." He added that "a trend is emerging in the launch of tokenised deposits by banks worldwide." Julia Leung, chief executive of the Securities and Futures Commission, said tokenized deposits "can now power around-the-clock transactions," including secondary trading of tokenized funds on licensed platforms.
Stablecoins are next in line
The HKMA's FinTech Week release added two details. Recognised Dealers have completed trial secondary-market trades in tokenized Exchange Fund Bills, Hong Kong's short-term government debt. And the HKMA "will soon expand the trials to include regulated stablecoins." Cointelegraph reported that Yue called tokenized central bank money a "foundation layer" for 24/7 settlement in his FinTech Week speech.
A bank product on day one
Standard Chartered launched its Tokenised Deposits product in Hong Kong the same day, its first market for the service. It's aimed at corporate treasurers, banks, investment platforms and digital asset firms, not retail customers. The bank says deposits move in real time between participating banks, with interbank settlement in central bank money on a 24/7 basis. It named China AMC, Finloop and PantherTrade as already running live transactions, and Fireblocks and HashKey as partners.
We’ve announced the launch of our Tokenised Deposits solution in Hong Kong, the first market in the Group to offer the solution.
The solution enables corporate treasurers, banks, investment platforms and digital asset businesses to use commercial bank deposits within digital… pic.twitter.com/NCWRrmX8wE
The new broker-dealer says its tokens will carry the same DTC-recorded claim investors hold in a brokerage account. Key pieces are still in development, and there's no launch date.
The big three transfer agents serve nearly 99% of the S&P 500, NYSE says. The venue still needs regulatory approval, and no launch date has been given.
