Circle, the world’s second-largest stablecoin issuer, is seeking approval to issue its USDC in Hong Kong but has no plans to issue a token based on the Hong Kong dollar, the South China Morning Post reported.
Circle Seeks Stablecoin Nod in Hong Kong: South China Morning Post
3 May 2026 - 09:25 CEST
Circle, which has an estimated 24% of the total supply of the stablecoin market, is second to Tether’s USDT approximately 59% dominance. It considers Hong Kong an "important and attractive" market, Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire was cited as saying in an interview.
Allaire's comments follow the granting of inaugural stablecoin issuer licences in April to banking giant HSBC and to Anchorpoint, which is backed by Standard Chartered, another bank.
Both HSBC and the Anchorpoint venture, which also includes Hong Kong Telecom and Animoca Brands, are issuing Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoins. Circle recently partnered with Hong Kong-listed digital-asset platform OSL for the use of USDC on its payment and trading systems.
