Ant Group is accelerating investments and expanding collaborations in global asset management, applying its innovations in AI, blockchain, and stablecoins to real and reliable large-scale applications.
On June 12, Bloomberg reported that Ant Group plans to submit an application for a stablecoin issuance license to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority as soon as the "Stablecoin Regulation" takes effect in August. The license will be used for cross-border payments and global treasury management. Meanwhile, according to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ant Group welcomed the passage of the "Stablecoin Regulation Draft" by the Hong Kong Legislative Council, stating that the company will submit its application after the bill takes effect on August 1 and the relevant channels are opened, hoping to contribute more to building Hong Kong as a future international financial center. Ant Group is accelerating investments and expanding collaborations in global asset management, applying its innovations in AI, blockchain, and stablecoins to real and reliable large-scale applications.
Stablecoins are special regulated crypto assets pegged to fiat currencies, characterized by high transparency, which can reduce costs and improve efficiency in cross-border finance, and have developed rapidly in recent years. Hong Kong has actively developed a WEB3.0 financial center in recent years, with stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar as an important component of future financial infrastructure. At the end of May, the Legislative Council passed the Hong Kong "Stablecoin Regulation Draft," bringing the issuance of stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and other fiat currencies under regulation, aiming to improve the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities in Hong Kong to maintain financial stability while promoting financial innovation.
(Ant Group was the first to join the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Ensemble" liquidity management sandbox project in 2024, with its Whale platform achieving multiple breakthroughs in collaboration with partners in October of that year.)
Currently, Ant Group's main competitors include U.S. companies like Stripe and PayPal, as well as card organizations Visa and MasterCard, all of which have actively engaged in the U.S. stablecoin issuance system. Ant Group is the first global fintech company to clearly state its intention to be the first to submit an application for a stablecoin issuance license to the Hong Kong government, possessing extensive experience in large-scale fund management.
Ant Group has managed over $300 billion in global funds using blockchain
As the parent company of Alipay, Ant Group has made internationalization a core development strategy, focusing on providing cross-border financial services for enterprises and institutions overseas, and establishing a cross-border payment cooperation platform. In 2024, Ant Group restructured, and Ant International began to "stand on its own," forming four core business segments, including cross-border wallet payments and digital solutions (Alipay+), cross-border corporate account services (WorldFirst), global merchant payment services (Antom), and scenario-based financial services (EmFi). Bloomberg previously reported that Ant International's revenue in 2024 exceeded $3 billion, achieving profitability for two consecutive years, and is considering a public listing in Hong Kong.
According to reports, Ant International's global treasury technology service department manages the cash flow of its four core business segments across more than 100 currencies, covering offline digital payments in over 70 markets, online e-commerce payments in over 100 currencies, global account operations for 1.2 million SMEs, and treasury flow management between millions of enterprises and banks across countries, involving cash flows in over 100 currencies.
In competing with international giants, Ant International has developed two core fund management technology products: the blockchain real-time cross-border fund platform Whale and the AI foreign exchange model Falcon. According to Bloomberg, Ant International's total fund processing volume in 2024 exceeded $1 trillion, while Ant previously revealed that over one-third of the fund processing volume in 2024 would be handled through the Whale platform using blockchain technology. Based on this estimate, over $300 billion in global funds will be managed using Ant International's blockchain technology in 2024. If half of this can be realized in stablecoin applications, the trading volume of stablecoins within its existing business could exceed $150 billion.
Deeply involved in government sandbox programs, with Hong Kong as an important anchor for going global
It is reported that Ant International also plans to apply for stablecoin-related licenses from local regulatory authorities in Luxembourg and Singapore, but Hong Kong remains a key focus for Ant International's global layout. At the 2024 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Ant Group and Ant International Chairman Jing Xiandong stated, "We hope Ant can contribute to establishing Hong Kong as a global leader in tokenization and Web3 fintech."
As early as May 2023, Ant Group became one of the first participants supporting the Monetary Authority's "Digital Hong Kong Dollar" pilot program, with the Hong Kong version of Alipay, AlipayHK, participating in the pilot.
In 2024, the Whale platform participated in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Ensemble Project" liquidity management sandbox and achieved two breakthroughs in October: completing the first cross-bank blockchain test transaction in Hong Kong dollars with HSBC, enabling real-time cross-bank transfers around the clock, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs; and successfully achieving internal transactions in Hong Kong dollars for corporate clients with Standard Chartered Bank, applying it in a real business environment between the banking system. In May 2025, Ant International collaborated with HSBC again to launch Hong Kong's first blockchain settlement solution, the "Tokenized Deposit Service," allowing clients to make real-time payments in Hong Kong dollars and U.S. dollars using corporate wallets.
Ant International's diversified layout in major global markets also makes it an early participant in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's related financial innovation sandbox pilot. In November 2023, Ant International participated in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian, exploring the construction of an open and interoperable digital asset trading platform and liquidity tools based on public chains.
In addition to local banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, since 2023, Ant International has also reached cooperation agreements with global and regional systemically important banks such as Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, OCBC, DBS Bank, and BNP Paribas. In this regard, Ant International's platform technology general manager Li Yue clearly positioned its business as "building a technological bridge for the financial services industry." The extensive cooperation with large institutions also demonstrates the industry's recognition of its technology's security, reliability, and compliance.
"Hong Kong's status as an international financial center is not merely due to the numerous bank facades in Central; fundamentally, it is because various industries globally recognize Hong Kong's flexible and efficient treasury management, low transaction costs, and its suitability for the actual transaction needs of various industries, supported by a highly secure and multi-layered ecosystem of traditional financial institutions," said Xiao Geng, a member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive's Policy Group and chairman of the Hong Kong International Financial Association. He pointed out that by developing a stablecoin platform through technology and ecosystem, and encouraging diverse large-scale applications in real scenarios, it can promote multinational companies to choose Hong Kong as their treasury management center, which is significant for consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international financial center.
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