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HKMA Pilot Now Settles Tokenized Deposits Around the Clock
The HKMA said its EnsembleTX pilot now supports 24/7 interbank settlement of tokenized deposits in tokenized central bank money. Participation has grown to 12 banks and 20 industry pioneers.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s central banking authority, announced on November 2 that EnsembleTX, the pilot phase of Project Ensemble, now supports 24/7 interbank settlement of tokenized deposit transactions in tokenized Central Bank Money (CeBM). The change affects participating banks and industry pioneers in Hong Kong.
- EnsembleTX now has 12 participating banks and 20 industry pioneers.
- The new capability settles tokenized deposit transactions in tokenized CeBM outside conventional operating hours.
- The HKMA said it will keep working with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on the tokenized financial ecosystem.
What changed in HKMA’s EnsembleTX pilot
Participating banks and industry pioneers can now use tokenized CeBM, a digital form of central bank money, to settle tokenized transactions beyond conventional hours. The HKMA said this responds to an increasingly global and always-on digital financial market.
Related: Hong Kong vs. Singapore: The Battle for Asian Crypto Dominance
EnsembleTX launched in November 2025. It first used the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, the central bank’s interbank payment infrastructure, to settle tokenized deposit transactions. The pilot ran in a controlled environment with real-value transactions involving tokenized deposits and digital assets.
Participants and use cases in Project Ensemble
Industry pioneers used the banks’ tokenized deposits to manage corporate cash and to trade tokenized money market funds. Pioneers using them include Ant International, BlackRock and China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited.
Related: 24/7 Tokenized Asset Trading: 0.55% on Weekends
Banks providing those deposits include Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
The HKMA said Project Ensemble will now support scaling of transactions and exploration of more tokenization use cases with tangible benefits.
Regulator statements and next steps
HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said Project Ensemble had moved from experimentation and piloting to a phase focused on commercialization of tokenization applications in Hong Kong. He said the HKMA expects commercialization of tokenized deposits and digital assets to gain momentum.
SFC Chief Executive Officer Julia Leung said tokenized deposits can now support around-the-clock transactions, including corporate treasury management and secondary trading of tokenized funds on licensed platforms. She said the SFC will work with the HKMA and market participants to turn the new capabilities into practical applications.
Licensed crypto trading platforms in Hong Kong
Julia Leung tied round-the-clock settlement to trading of tokenized funds on licensed platforms. For crypto, the SFC has licensed 13 virtual asset trading platforms, the exchanges it permits to operate in Hong Kong, according to Coincub Data. The count stood at two at the end of 2023 and rose to seven by the end of 2024 and 11 by the end of 2025. OSL Digital Securities received the first license on December 15, 2020. The latest went to NewBX Limited, the operator of Bixin.com, on May 18, 2026, and the SFC has added no platform since.
