HKDAP could move the Hong Kong dollar beyond payments and into cross-border settlement, corporate treasury management and tokenized finance as regulated stablecoins gain a role in Hong Kong’s on-chain financial system, according to a HashKey researcher.

HashKey senior researcher Tim Sun told crypto.news that the future role of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins, including HKDAP, could extend well beyond payments as financial assets increasingly move onto blockchain networks.

“From our perspective, the role of HKD stablecoins (including HKDAP) in the future will be more than just a new payment tool; more importantly, they will serve as a digital vehicle for the Hong Kong Dollar to enter the on-chain financial system.”

According to Sun, Asia’s large cross-border capital flows, established financial system and growing use of asset tokenization create several possible applications for regulated HKD-denominated stablecoins. He identified cross-border settlement, corporate treasury management, and digital asset trading as areas where tokenized HKD could be used.

Tokenized financial assets could create another use case because their subscription, redemption, and settlement require a compatible form of money, Sun said.

“Looking further ahead, as more financial assets move on-chain, the market needs not only on-chain assets but also a matching on-chain settlement currency,” he added.

HKDAP insurance tests provide an early use case

Insurance has already provided one of the first institutional environments for testing the token.

On Aug. 14, HashKey Exchange said it had completed a live HKDAP transaction with YF Life Insurance International using real funds. The exercise covered the stablecoin’s subscription and redemption process, while YF Life said it planned to support HKDAP premium payments in the future, subject to regulatory requirements.

Sun said the regulated nature of insurance makes it compatible with a stablecoin issued under formal regulatory oversight. Premium payments also offer a standardized and recurring transaction that institutions can use to test settlement infrastructure.

“The two announced cooperation cases indeed both have a background in insurance institutions,” Sun said.

“On one hand, insurance is a highly regulated industry, which aligns well with the positioning of a regulated stablecoin. On the other hand, from a business perspective, premium payment itself is a relatively clear, standardized, and high-frequency real-world scenario.”

HashKey has also partnered with insurer OneDegree to explore local and cross-border applications for HKDAP, adding another insurance-related test to the token’s early institutional rollout.

The activity follows Anchorpoint Financial’s controlled launch of HKDAP earlier in August. As previously reported, Anchorpoint appointed HashKey Exchange as an authorized distributor, allowing eligible institutions and professional investors to access minting, redemption, and fiat conversion during the beta phase.

HashKey had completed an initial minting and redemption transaction with eligible clients when the distribution arrangement was announced.

HKDAP use cases are extending into trade and treasury

Insurance is not the only financial activity being tested.

On Aug. 13, Unloq said its SC+ trade-finance infrastructure completed a Hong Kong transaction using HKDAP as the settlement instrument for a receivables-financing transaction. SC+ created a blockchain representation of the approved receivable, while HKDAP handled settlement within the workflow.

Sun said trade, corporate cross-border fund management, and tokenized assets are among the areas where stablecoins could provide additional utility.

“These fields inherently have strong demands for multi-currency, cross-timezone, and capital allocation capabilities, which better reflect the incremental value of stablecoins in on-chain settlement and cross-border fund management,” he said.

Institutional distribution has also continued to expand since HKDAP entered beta access.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) became HKDAP’s first bank distributor on Aug. 24 and said it was working with eligible institutional clients on potential applications involving fund settlement, treasury management and cross-border trade payments.

Anchorpoint’s records show further additions to the distribution network during the final week of August. Finloop became an authorized distributor on Aug. 25, followed by Yunfeng Financial on Aug. 26, while Bank of East Asia signed an agreement with Anchorpoint on Aug. 28 to explore applications for the HKD-backed token.

HKDAP remains under Hong Kong’s regulated rollout

Despite the expanding list of institutional participants, HKDAP remains in a controlled rollout rather than unrestricted public distribution.

Anchorpoint began beta access on Aug. 12 for institutional distributors and professional investors, initially identifying cross-border payments, fiat conversion, and tokenized-asset settlement among its intended applications. The institutional rollout followed months of regulatory and technical preparation.

Before distribution began, Anchorpoint, OSL Group and Futu-backed PantherTrade tested HKDAP transfers on Ethereum mainnet in May. The Ethereum test covered the token’s transaction process after Anchorpoint received regulatory approval.

HKDAP has a par value of HK$1 per token, according to Anchorpoint’s whitepaper. Tokens in circulation must be supported by a reserve pool with a market value at least equal to the outstanding HKDAP, with the assets held in trust for token holders.

The regulatory foundation was established in April, when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses to Anchorpoint and HSBC. The first licenses came under the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025 and subjects covered issuers to requirements involving reserves, redemption, governance and risk controls.

Anchorpoint itself was formed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands after the companies participated in the HKMA’s stablecoin issuer sandbox.

HKD stablecoins could offer an alternative settlement currency

For Sun, one of the longer-term questions is whether tokenized financial activity should remain overwhelmingly dependent on dollar-denominated stablecoins.

“The significance of the HKD stablecoin lies in enabling the HKD to participate in this new financial infrastructure system, preventing on-chain finance from relying solely on USD stablecoins in the long run.”

The argument comes as the United States builds its own federal framework around payment stablecoins. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025, creating a federal regulatory structure for permitted payment stablecoin issuers.

U.S. regulators, however, missed the law’s July 18, 2026 deadline for completing key implementing rules, leaving several proposals unfinished ahead of the framework’s Jan. 18, 2027 effective date. U.S. rulemaking deadline

Treasury and other U.S. regulators have also proposed customer-identification requirements for certain permitted payment stablecoin issuers. Under the proposal, covered issuers would be treated as financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act purposes and would need to verify customers in direct relationships, while secondary-market transactions generally would not trigger the same requirement.

Hong Kong’s framework, meanwhile, has placed HKDAP under HKMA supervision from issuance. Anchorpoint’s whitepaper states that the token is authorized for issuance in Hong Kong and may be distributed in other jurisdictions only in accordance with applicable local laws.

The crypto market has posted sharp gains across Bitcoin and several major altcoins, but Cryptex Finance data covering 36 assets and roughly 92% of the digital asset market shows that capital remains heavily concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum despite prices rising across the market.

Cryptex Finance co-founder Joe Sticco told crypto.news that participation in the recent rally had spread across the market, but the allocation of capital had not followed at the same pace, leaving cryptocurrencies trading more like a single group than a market in which investors are selecting individual winners.

Cryptex’s market index stood at 1,199.69, almost 20% above the base level of 1,000 set on Feb. 20. The index tracks 36 assets across five sectors using Coinbase pricing, giving Sticco a larger sample than Bitcoin or a handful of major altcoins alone.

Over the trailing seven days, however, the index had risen only 1.92%. Sticco said the figure matters because much of the rally that produced large percentage gains from recent lows took place within roughly 72 hours between Aug. 19 and Aug. 21, followed by several days of relatively flat trading.

“Measure from the low, and you get a rally. Measure the trailing week, which is what most readers think they’re being told, and you get almost nothing,” Sticco said.

Bitcoin’s acceleration during that period followed a major derivatives flush alongside renewed spot demand. Earlier market coverage showed BTC jumping from below $65,000 to around $69,500 on Aug. 19 as more than $1 billion in crypto short positions were liquidated within an hour.

Crypto market gains show little separation between assets

Price dispersion within Cryptex’s index provides another reason Sticco is reluctant to describe the rally as a full capital rotation.

On the day measured by Cryptex, the strongest constituent gained 6.71%, while the weakest declined 1.49%. Despite covering 36 cryptocurrencies from five sectors, the entire range between the best and worst performers amounted to roughly eight percentage points.

“That is not a market sorting winners from losers. That’s a market moving as one block,” Sticco said.

According to Sticco, such low dispersion indicates that a common market factor is lifting cryptocurrencies together instead of investors moving money between assets based on individual fundamentals.

Major tokens nevertheless produced very different headline returns when measured across the rally. Sticco put Bitcoin’s seven-day increase at roughly 14%, XRP’s at 28%, and Solana’s at about 19%.

Capital allocation did not match the apparent spread in price performance. Bitcoin dominance remained around 57% to 60%, depending on the market universe used, while Sticco cited an Altcoin Season Index reading below 40, far under the 75 level generally used by the index to signal an altcoin season.

Solana also remained more than 50% below its October 2025 level despite gaining about 19% during the week, according to Sticco.

“Participation broadened. Allocation didn’t,” he said.

Institutional flows remain concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum

Regulated investment products give Sticco another way to separate rising cryptocurrency prices from the destination of new capital.

During one recent Wednesday session, Sticco said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs received about $232 million, while Ether ETFs attracted roughly $192 million. XRP products brought in around $28 million, compared with approximately $15 million for HYPE products and $9 million for Solana.

By his calculation, close to nine dollars out of every ten went into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Weekly figures showed a similar concentration, with Bitcoin receiving about 71% of flows and Ethereum another 26%.

The concentration comes even as U.S. spot products have helped support Bitcoin’s recovery. A previous report on ETF demand found that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had taken in approximately $1.9 billion across five consecutive inflow sessions by Aug. 24, while analysts said continued spot buying would be needed after forced short covering helped accelerate the initial breakout.

Sticco said the subsequent streak had reached eight consecutive sessions of net Bitcoin ETF inflows totaling about $2.8 billion, while Ether ETFs had also recorded eight positive sessions and more than $1 billion in inflows.

August Bitcoin ETF inflows had exceeded $3 billion by the time of his comments, making it the strongest month of 2026, according to Sticco. He said BlackRock had absorbed a large portion of the demand, including around $1.3 billion during the previous week.

“Eight straight sessions of regulated spot creations is not what a short squeeze produces,” he said.

The ETF numbers, however, require another distinction when assessing how much new institutional money has entered Bitcoin.

Sticco said net assets held by the funds had climbed from roughly $77 billion in mid-August to just above $99 billion by Tuesday, an increase of about $22 billion. Actual net inflows during the eight-session streak totaled only around $2.8 billion.

Much of the difference came from Bitcoin’s rising price increasing the value of assets already held by the funds, he said, rather than investors supplying another $22 billion in fresh capital.

Earlier in August, five consecutive inflow sessions had brought approximately $853.5 million into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs between Aug. 3 and Aug. 7, reversing withdrawals recorded during the preceding week.

Sticco also cautioned against viewing August in isolation. He said spot Bitcoin ETFs lost roughly $5.4 billion during the first half of 2026 and remained about $2.5 billion in negative territory for the year despite the latest inflows.

ETF demand is clearer than derivatives positioning

Separating institutional buying from leverage requires looking at different parts of the market, according to Sticco.

ETF flows and market depth measure demand, while funding rates, futures basis, and open interest give more information about trader positioning. Sticco said falling open interest alongside rising prices can indicate shorts are closing rather than new buyers entering.

He declined to characterize current open interest as either bullish or bearish because publicly available readings differed. Some datasets quote open interest in Bitcoin while others measure its dollar value, which can produce different trends when BTC itself moves sharply.

Market depth presents a similar problem. Sticco described depth as one of the most useful measures for institutional participation because it shows how much capital can enter or exit without materially moving the market.

“Price tells you what the last trade cleared at. Depth tells you what the next big one will cost.”

Available public depth figures were not current enough for Sticco to say confidently how much liquidity had recovered. He pointed instead to the damage following the October 2025 deleveraging event, when he said an estimated $10 billion to $20 billion in leveraged positions were erased and Bitcoin’s top-of-book depth on major venues fell more than 90% intraday.

Market makers subsequently reduced resting liquidity after getting caught with inventory while hedges were force-closed, according to Sticco, leaving order books at their thinnest since 2022.

For Sticco, the institutional side of crypto has therefore developed faster than the liquidity supporting the underlying market.

U.S. policy and Treasury conditions remain part of the rally

Macroeconomic conditions have also played an important role in the latest advance, according to Sticco, who pointed to the U.S. Treasury’s Aug. 19 decision to increase long-dated debt buybacks as an important catalyst.

The Treasury doubled the maximum size of certain long-end liquidity support buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The Treasury announcement was followed by falling long-term yields and an 8.2% Bitcoin advance from an intraday low around $64,100 to approximately $69,500 in less than 12 hours.

Sticco said Bitcoin’s close relationship with software stocks during the move shows how crypto has become more connected to U.S. macro conditions. As interest-rate expectations later changed and short-term yields rose, Bitcoin surrendered some of the gains even though the legislative situation in Washington had not materially changed.

Congress presents another variable for U.S. investors. Sticco pointed to the CLARITY Act, which would establish a statutory division of responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC for parts of the digital asset market and create a federal framework affecting exchanges, brokers, dealers, and custody.

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the legislation 15-9 in May, with Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joining Republicans. Sticco, who attended the markup as part of Cryptex’s policy work, said both Democrats made clear at the time that their committee votes did not guarantee support on the Senate floor without progress on unresolved provisions.

A Sept. 15 cloture vote requires 60 votes to move the legislation forward. Previous coverage of the negotiations identified ethics rules, stablecoin rewards, and financial-crime provisions among the issues still unresolved ahead of the procedural vote.

For regulated index products, Sticco pointed in particular to provisions covering CFTC registration of digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Capital, asset-segregation, surveillance, and customer-protection requirements could increase the number of regulated venues capable of supporting assets used in exchange-traded products, he said.

Sticco also cited custody provisions and changes affecting financial holding companies as potentially important for institutions, while arguing that statutory classification of digital assets would give index providers more certainty than relying on agency interpretations that future regulators could change.

Policy expectations, however, have weakened even as cryptocurrency prices have risen. Sticco said Polymarket odds for the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 had fallen from roughly 82% in February to around 25% in late August, while Galaxy Research placed the probability closer to 10%.

The Sept. 15 vote will also fall on the first day of the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 15-16 meeting, leaving two major U.S. policy events scheduled within the same period.

Unresolved Senate negotiations include ethics and conflict-of-interest rules involving government officials, possible secondary enforcement authority for state attorneys general, illicit-finance provisions and banking-industry objections to crypto exchanges paying yield on stablecoin balances, according to Sticco.

The Crypto.com-supported Cronos blockchain had to halt and rewind its history this week to stop an ongoing theft due to the Tectonic protocol that Crypto.com had spent months promoting.

Tectonic warned users to pause using its protocol altogether. PeckShield first estimated the value of compromised funds at approximately $74 million.

Crypto.com supplied one of the largest retail onramps for Tectonic, this newly compromised protocol that nearly drained tens of millions of dollars from Cronos’ DeFi ecosystem. As fear about the hack has spread, Cronos’ CRO token has lost 6% of its value over the past 24 hours.

Kris Marszalek’s Crypto.com exchange proudly offered TONIC purchases through more than 20 fiat currencies. Crypto.com advertised TONIC-denominated Visa card spending at 80 million merchants.

It listed TONIC for trading on its main exchange, advertised staking returns of up to 100% per annum, and promoted staking rewards within its Crypto.com DeFi Wallet.

Bitcoin (BTC) gyrated around $78,000 at Monday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields neared 20-year highs again.

Key points:

• Bitcoin reacts as the US Treasury Secretary comments on bond markets in a mainstream media interview.
• Analysis warns that bonds are “ignoring” policy changes as new 20-year highs loom for the 30-year yield.
• BTC price analysis sees an emerging hidden bearish RSI divergence contributing to month-end weakness.

Bitcoin spikes as Bessent discusses bond yields

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD trading in a narrow range, up around 1% on the day. 

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

After falling into the start of the US trading session, the pair saw a swift rebound as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at further interventions in the US bond market. In an interview with CNBC, Bessent stressed that he had not yet acted to shore up the long end of the yield curve — 10-year and 30-year bonds.

“I haven’t bought anything yet,” he told the network, adding that he was “fine” with yields rebounding after the announcement.

This month, the Treasury announced that it would be at least doubling the size of its debt buyback transactions to $4 billion from September. At the time, yields fell, but on Monday, the 10-year yield was back at its highest levels since January 2025 at 4.76%.

US 10-year bond yield one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 30-year yield reached 5.269% on the day, six basis points short of its highest levels since January 2007.

“The bond market appears to be completely ignoring the US Treasury,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded in a post on X.

US 30-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Earlier, Ray Dalio expressed skepticism at the Treasury’s ability to control bonds, even under the new program. Forecasting a future US debt crisis, he named both Bitcoin and gold as potential hedges.

“As general advice, I suggest diversifying well in asset classes and countries that have strong income statements and balance sheets and are not having great internal political and external geopolitical conflicts, underweighting debt assets like bonds, and overweighting gold and a bit of Bitcoin,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

US stocks, meanwhile, remained red on the day, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index trading around 0.4% lower as tensions over new US-Iran strikes filtered through to markets.

Bitcoin RSI sparks new bearish warning

Ahead of the August monthly candle close, BTC/USD maintained its 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) at $77,269 as support.

Related: Bitcoin bear market ‘over’ as price metric copies 2023 recovery: CryptoQuant CEO

BTC/USD one-hour chart with 50-week EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Previously, Cointelegraph reported that this level is a key line in the sand for bulls. Month-to-date gains have neared 25% in Bitcoin’s best August performance since 2017.

In a note of caution, trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned of a hidden bearish divergence playing out on daily time frames between price and the relative strength index (RSI). Despite bullish RSI signals on the weekly chart, the latest daily values, he warned, pointed to waning momentum.

“if the Daily RSI continues to make Lower Highs (blue), that’ll contribute to mounting weakness here,” he told X followers alongside an explanatory chart.

Daily RSI measured 70.7 on Monday, still within “overbought” territory.

BTC/USD one-day chart with RSI data. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com

Webull, a self-directed brokerage and trading platform, is widening its Canadian product lineup by adding cryptocurrency trading for retail customers. The expansion arrives as the country’s regulators continue laying groundwork for clearer rules across parts of the digital-asset market.

Webull said Monday that its Canada crypto offering will be powered by Coinbase’s “Crypto-as-a-Service” infrastructure. Under the arrangement, Coinbase is set to provide the underlying trading and custody capabilities that support Webull’s new crypto access in Canada.

Key takeaways

• Webull is launching crypto trading in Canada, expanding beyond stocks, ETFs, and options available to its retail user base.
• The service will run on Coinbase’s Crypto-as-a-Service, with Coinbase handling core trading and custody functions.
• Webull points to rising Canadian interest in crypto, citing Ontario Securities Commission research on ownership growth.
• Regulatory clarity is still developing in Canada, including work on a stablecoin framework that would apply to both domestic and foreign issuers.

Webull adds crypto to its Canadian retail platform

Webull’s Canadian website currently displays 10 cryptocurrencies, including well-known assets such as Bitcoin and Ether, along with Solana. The platform also indicates that additional cryptocurrencies are available beyond the initial list, suggesting a staged rollout or expanding selection after launch.

For investors who already use Webull for traditional markets, the move effectively brings digital assets into the same self-directed ecosystem. That matters because crypto access through mainstream brokerage-style interfaces can lower friction for retail users who prefer established platforms and consolidated account experiences rather than switching between exchanges and wallets.

Coinbase infrastructure sits underneath the offering

Webull did not present its own trading or custody stack for Canada in its announcement. Instead, it said the company’s crypto offering will rely on Coinbase’s Crypto-as-a-Service infrastructure.

In practical terms, this means Coinbase supplies critical back-end services—specifically trading operations and custody—while Webull acts as the front-end platform for Canadian users. This kind of partnership can be attractive for brokerages that want to add new asset classes without building and operating complex custody and trading systems from scratch.

Webull cites Canadian demand and regulator momentum

As a justification for the expansion, Webull pointed to growing crypto adoption in Canada, including findings from Ontario Securities Commission research. According to the OSC, digital asset ownership has risen to 25% this year from 10% in 2023.

The company also highlighted that broader regulatory activity is underway. Canada is working toward more explicit rules for parts of the crypto industry, with attention not only on exchange-like services but also on stablecoins—an area that has become a focal point for regulators globally.

Stablecoin rules remain incomplete, but a framework is coming

While Webull’s immediate product is spot cryptocurrency trading, the regulatory direction in Canada affects how stablecoin-linked products and services may develop over time. The announcement noted that Canada does not yet have comprehensive rules specifically for fiat-backed stablecoins. However, a pathway is taking shape.

The Stablecoin Act, introduced following the 2025 federal budget, is intended to establish requirements for both domestic and foreign stablecoin issuers. In addition to its domestic impact, that “foreign issuer” angle is significant because it can influence whether international stablecoin brands can operate under Canadian standards and what disclosures or operational controls they would need to meet.

Investors watching crypto in Canada will likely view this as an important medium-term signal: platforms and liquidity providers typically want stablecoin arrangements that align with clear legal expectations before expanding product offerings tied to fiat-pegged assets.

Webull’s Canada launch raises the near-term question of how its crypto lineup will evolve—whether the initial 10 assets remain limited or broaden quickly—and whether regulators’ stablecoin framework ultimately accelerates or reshapes the range of digital-asset products available to retail users.