On 14 March 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) announced the launch of Phase 2 of the e-HKD Pilot Programme, aimed at further exploring innovative applications for an e-HKD in Hong Kong.
The HKMA completed the first phase of the e-HKD Pilot Programme in October 2023. This explored domestic retail use cases in different areas such as programmable payments, settlement of tokenized assets, and offline payments.
Building on Phase 1, the HKMA is now launching Phase 2 of the pilot. This next phase will delve deeper into select use cases from the previous stage where an e-HKD provided unique benefits, including programmability, tokenization, and atomic settlement (i.e. the ability to settle transactions and exchange assets in a simultaneous, instant and contingent manner). Phase 2 will also explore new potential use cases through facilitating study of interoperability and interbank settlement between e-HKD and other forms of tokenised money.
Details about the application process is available here.
