If Hong Kong's first stabilization plates are issued only to banks, we might miss the next 10 years

The news that the Hong Kong Financial Authority is about to publish the first issuer's licence plates has recently generated considerable concern both within and outside the industry. Moreover, according to anecdotal reports from the authoritative media and within the industry, Hong Kong ' s first stabilization licence plates are likely to be issued only to traditional banknotes or large commercial banks, out of the most caring and conservative risk considerations of financial stability。

To be honest, when I heard the news, I and the veterans in several trades were sweating. While Hong Kong has already played the card of building a “global digital asset centre” and wiped all the tables, at the point where currency stabilization, which is a true replica of the future’s low-level financial logic, if it is finally decided that only “old money” in the traditional system will be on the table... What we may miss is not just the future of a few local financial technology firms, but rather the biggest payment innovation of the Web3 and AI era。

I have also been wondering over the past few days why it is disturbing to leave the most important financial innovations to traditional banks to take the lead

In fact, the answer is clear。

Subversive things rarely grow from the center

Turning to the financial history of the past few decades, the innovation that really changed the rules of the game was largely not born from the banking building. Whether the PayPal of that year, or the subsequent subversion of the daily transaction's payment treasures, micro-credit payments or the encrypted currency itself, it is often small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in marginal areas that make a big difference。

This is not to say that traditional banks are not doing well. Large banks are built to act as “credit intermediaries” and are born to aversion to risk and to pursue extreme robustness. This is their genes and the basis for maintaining the functioning of the financial system。

But the Stable Currency is just another species. It is a new currency vehicle without borders, programmable and decentralised, which is essentially a downgrading of traditional banking. Now you're getting used to a regular banknote with a huge compliance burden, leading a Web3 payment revolution that would probably subvert their own distribution of vested interests? It makes no sense in business logic. Strong people are hard。

Look who's on the card table across the ocean

If history is felt too distant, we can look at the current global market. It's not Morgan Chase, it's Citicorp, it's technology companies with very powerful technological genes。

Look at Stripe in the United States, the multi-billion-dollar payment giant just bought the Stabilised Currency Platform Bridge. I have carefully read the words of Stripe’s co-founder, John Collison, in their open letter of 2025, that he did not engage in the grand idea that, quite literally, a stable currency represents “an improvement in the basic availability of money” – the most innovative area in the Internet economy. People are really rebuilding the global base of payments with codes and stabilizers。

And look at the USDC's Circe, they're not satisfied with being a single issuing agency. The current financial statements and actions are clear, and they are making a bottom-up network for the future AI Agent in combination with a large model。

The American strategy is now clear: using innovative technology firms and stabilization money to fight the next financial science and technology war. If Hong Kong is at this point in time to hand over the key to the most important weapons depot to traditional banks that are used to defense, what are Web3 companies in Hong Kong competing with others

IN THE AI ERA, THE BANK'S SYSTEM COULDN'T HANDLE MACHINE BILLS

THE HKSAR GOVERNMENT IS NOW WORKING HARD TO PUSH “AI+” AND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. BUT MANY TIMES, THE BOTTOM BOOKS HAVE NOT BEEN FIGURED OUT: WHAT THE AI-ERA PAYMENTS LOOK LIKE

I estimate that in two or three years, the subject of commercial transactions is not just a living person or a company like you or me, but a million AI Agents operating in clouds。

IMAGINE, AT 3:00 A.M., YOUR PERSONAL A.I. ASSISTANT, TO HELP YOU RUN A COMPLEX VIDEO RENDERING MODEL, WENT ALL OVER THE INTERNET TO FIND THE CHEAPEST IDLE CALCULATOR, AND THEN STARTED A MULTINATIONAL API CALL DOZENS OF TIMES A SECOND. THIS HIGH FREQUENCY, INSTANTANEOUS, AND POSSIBLY ONLY A FEW CENTS PER TRANSACTION ACROSS BORDERS, CAN THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF FRENCH CURRENCY WORK? TRADITIONAL BANK TRANSFER FEES ARE PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE, WAITING FOR A T+1 OR T+2 SETTLEMENT AND MAINTAINING THE SYSTEM ON WEEKENDS。

THOSE WHO TRADE BETWEEN THESE 24/7 LOW-WIELD MACHINES ARE ONLY STABLE CURRENCY RUNNING THROUGH THE BLOCK CHAIN. IT'S WRITTEN DIRECTLY INTO THE SMART CONTRACT, SO AI CAN TAKE HIS WALLET AND PAY FOR IT. WITHOUT THIS BASE, THE SO-CALLED AI SMART ECONOMY CAN'T TURN UP。

SOMEONE'S GOING TO ASK IF IT'S OKAY FOR A BIG BANK TO GIVE ITSELF A STABILIZER FOR AI

I can't. This touches the bottom of the banking industry in compliance. The bank's KYC (know your customer) and anti-money laundering systems are designed for “natural persons” and “substantive enterprises”. You have to file an ID card, an address certificate, a board decision. The bank ' s compliance system makes mistakes when an AI Agent, a code-coding one, separates from the entity ' s account and wants to buy money to calculate. How do you make the system recognize the code

The only reasonable response of the banking system under the existing regulatory inertia is that it is too risky to understand and refuses services directly。

The bottom system of the large mainframe age does not match the new play on the chain. This intergenerational pain point can only be addressed by technology-driven independent distributors who understand the Web3 architecture. Only then do they know the flexibility to use chain data and brand-new digital identity technology to minimize frictions paid by machines within a compliance framework。

Hong Kong needs too much force

I really understand the regulatory caution in the early stages of the deal. In the context of traditional finance, first handing a license to a large, powerful bank is the most secure and unmistakeable defensive action. But in the eye of the technology paradigm, excessive caution may turn into the greatest risk — the risk of missing an era。

The vision of the Global Digital Asset Centre should not simply allow traditional banks to issue “up-chain Hong Kong currency” with block-chain technology. Hong Kong needs real Web3 entrepreneurs and ambitious technology firms to take root here to serve the AI smart economy worldwide. Ecology is based on the competition of real money and silver, not on the protection of circles。

In this race, Hong Kong is in dire need of a force that understands both modern compliance logic and real technology, and cannot rely solely on those who are confined to established systems。

It is sincerely hoped that regulators will show greater vigour and leave a door open for independent innovation enterprises with technological genes. It is not the distribution of the benefits of a few licence plates, but rather whether Hong Kong will be on the front of the ship by the wind or, unfortunately, only on the shore。