BlackRock wins SFC approval for first Hong Kong tokenised fund, open to retail

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has granted regulatory authorisation to BlackRock for the BlackRock HKD Digital Liquidity Fund, making it the asset manager’s first tokenised fund in Hong Kong and across the Asia Pacific region. The fund will be denominated in Hong Kong dollars and invest in short-term, high-quality HKD money market instruments including government bills and deposits. Standard Chartered will serve simultaneously as custodian, fund administrator, trustee, and tokenisation partner, consolidating roles that BlackRock’s other regional tokenised funds distribute across multiple vendors.

Subscription and redemption will be available in fiat currency or digital cash, with HKDAP, a regulated HKD stablecoin issued by Standard Chartered-led Anchorpoint Financial, accepted as a settlement option. This marks the first time Standard Chartered has acted as a bank distributor of HKDAP in a commercial context, embedding the stablecoin into a live, SFC-authorised retail-eligible product.

The Hong Kong launch extends BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund suite to a fourth currency, adding HKD alongside the existing USD, EUR, and GBP offerings in the United States and Europe. The regional infrastructure choices differ materially: Securitize handles tokenisation for two US funds while BNY manages a third, and JP Morgan‘s Kinexys platform underpins a dozen share classes across six European institutional funds. Hong Kong’s architecture consolidates all of those functions within Standard Chartered, a structural decision that reflects both the available regulated infrastructure in the city and Standard Chartered’s dual role as a traditional custodian and digital asset operator.