Hong Kong Monetary Authority vice president: The issuance timeline for the second batch of stablecoin licenses has not been determined, and the total number of licenses is extremely limited.

Gate News message. On April 13, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Deputy Chief Executive Officer Chen Weimin said that the timeline for issuing the second batch of stablecoin licenses has not yet been determined; it will be set according to how the first two licensed institutions are operating, and the total number of licenses in the future will be very limited. A source said that among the mainland Chinese institutions that had participated in submitting applications, they had all received window guidance from relevant authorities to temporarily hold off on participating in this stablecoin licensing application, but some mainland Chinese institutions have continued to communicate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority over the past few months. After excluding mainland Chinese institutions, the vast majority of institutions planning to apply are relatively limited in strength, and there are not many qualified institutions that can fully meet the requirements of the Stablecoin Ordinance. Li Guankang, who oversees HSBC Payme, said that as long as someone is a Payme user, they can open a stablecoin account; within a stablecoin account, users can directly transfer funds to friends and family, transfer to merchants, or invest in products linked to stablecoins. Users in the HSBC app cannot open stablecoin accounts directly; they must apply after HSBC has screened out qualifying users. Opening a Payme account has required users to be Hong Kong residents, and HSBC app users also include users from the Mainland. Under the management framework in place in Hong Kong, only Hong Kong residents may participate in virtual asset trading; even Mainland clients who are mobile payment users of HSBC Hong Kong cannot apply for a stablecoin account.