Ant International has become the first corporate client to utilise HSBC’s new Tokenised Deposit Service in Hong Kong, marking a milestone in the city’s push to integrate blockchain into traditional finance, Business News Asia reported.
The service enables real-time, round-the-clock HKD and USD payments between corporate accounts via tokenised deposits on a blockchain ledger, significantly improving cross-border treasury operations.
The initiative, launched after a successful pilot on Ant’s proprietary Whale platform, is the first blockchain-based settlement service led by a commercial bank in Hong Kong.
HSBC adapted learnings from the pilot to launch the service, with Ant International completing the inaugural intra-group fund transfer by converting its USD deposits into digital tokens on HSBC’s distributed ledger system.
The Whale platform—developed by Ant International’s Platform Tech team—is a next-generation treasury management solution that integrates blockchain, artificial intelligence, and advanced cryptography.
It allows for encrypted, on-chain processing of transactions across global treasury operations. In 2024, over a third of Ant International’s treasury transfers were executed on-chain using Whale.
Whale supports multiple tokenised assets and cross-chain interoperability, employing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption to ensure secure and private multi-party verification.
The platform is designed to handle complex liquidity and FX operations between Ant’s global entities and external partners in real time.
The collaboration with HSBC builds on a broader partnership dating back to 2020. Last year, both firms also tested HKD-denominated cross-bank transfers under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Ensemble Sandbox initiative.
Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech at Ant International, said the partnership highlights the convergence of blockchain’s efficiency with the reliability of traditional banking.
“Our banking partnerships are expanding from tokenisation to AI-driven FX and liquidity initiatives,” he said. “We look forward to helping shape the next era of treasury management globally.”
The rollout reinforces Hong Kong’s ambitions to be a leading digital finance hub and a testbed for institutional blockchain adoption.