Ant Group Applies for Stablecoin Licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore

In a big win for the stablecoin adoption, the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma owned unit Ant Group is applying for a stablecoin licenses in Hongkong and Singapore.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's owned unit Ant Group is applying for a stablecoin licenses in Hongkong and Singapore, in a big win for the stablecoin adoption.

According to the Bloomberg report, Ant Group’s Vice President and Ant Digital Technology’s Blockchain Head Bian Zhuoqun shared the update in a recent interview.

The license is being initiated for the Ant Digital Technology, one of Ant Group’s core unit which focuses on next generation infrastructure.

Licenses Ant Group is Applying for in Singapore and HongKong

The Singapore-based entity is applying for a license which HongKong is yet to bring in force under its stablecoin law. Hongkong passed a dedicated stablecoin law on May 21 to make it mandatory for stablecoin issuers obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

For Ant, which already maintains a major regional R&D center and digital-assets pilot projects in Hong Kong, the regime offers a clear roadmap to bring Alipay’s native user base onto-chain.

Meanwhile, Singapore has its “Stablecoin control Regime” under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) since August 2024. Under MAS oversight, stablecoin issuers must hold segregated reserves equal to circulating supply and maintain $1 million in base capital.

Ant Group is the fintech giant behind Alipay, the world’s largest mobile payments platform. Thus, with the HKMA and MAS stablecoin licenses licenses, it can allow Alipay merchants and end-users to have stablecoin-based cross border transactions.

Interestingly, the license application comes only a few weeks after Ant Digital launched its RWA-focused layer2 chain – Jovay. Besides this, it also has its flagship L2 network- AntChain-2 which can serve as the settlement layer for its stablecoin transactions.

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Boost for Stablecoins?

The news comes as the total stablecoin market capitalization surpasses the $250 million all-time high for the first time on Sunday, according to the data from DefiLlama.

Besides this, the broader stablecoin macroenvironment is witnessing a bullish momentum. The USDC stablecoin issuer, Circle is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

There are many other companies who are either exploring stablecoin adoption or considering issuing their own stablecoin. Following its acquisition of Bridge (a stablecoin orchestration platform), Stripe has also started testing stablecoin payments.

Recently, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also revealed that his company is in the study phase of exploring stablecoin adoption. A May 2025 survey by Fire blocks has reported that 90% of the institutions are exploring the use of Stablecoins in their services.

Thus, the stablecoin license application by Ant Digital comes as another feather in the ongoing momentum of stablecoins adoption.

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