Hong Kong FinTech Week is not just about crypto; it is far more important to observe how the event drives transformation of traditional finance.

Written by Joe Zhou, Foresight News

The 11th edition of Hong Kong FinTech Week officially kicked off on November 2.

I spent a long time debating whether to attend, but ultimately decided to show up in person. My curiosity has been growing: as crypto starts to integrate into the traditional financial system, what exactly are the major players that hold the bulk of global financial resources actually doing?

If attending TOKEN2049 in Singapore means observing the industry from a crypto-native perspective, Hong Kong FinTech Week offers a vantage point to view "financial innovation" through the lens of large-scale financial groups.

I am eager to understand how these financial giants that control a huge share of global financial resources perceive the next wave of financial innovation.

This year, Hong Kong FinTech Week is expected to gather over 1,000 speakers, 800 exhibitors and startups. Behind this scale lies a fintech ecosystem worth close observation.

From my perspective, Hong Kong FinTech Week has several distinct traits: it brings together a large contingent of local Hong Kong financial institutions, as well as a host of large international financial groups. Compared to crypto-native industry events, it functions more as a stage for the traditional financial system to showcase innovation outcomes and align on future development directions.

Standard Chartered, HSBC, Ant Group, Tencent, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Visa, Swift — spanning global banks, asset management giants, international payment networks, and core financial infrastructure — all these institutions will appear at this year’s Hong Kong FinTech Week.

They are not just bringing industry insights; they are also showcasing their latest explorations across areas including AI, blockchain, tokenized assets, and cross-border payments.

I am particularly curious about: What is the current progress of global financial giants like BlackRock and Standard Chartered, which have already made clear moves to embrace crypto? How have global financial infrastructure providers such as Visa, Mastercard and Swift transformed the connection between crypto and traditional payment networks over the past year, and how will they further shape payments, settlement and capital flows in the crypto ecosystem going forward? And for crypto-native players with years of industry experience, such as HashKey and Solana, can they break further into the core business lines of the traditional financial system?

Being on site will give me a more direct line to hear these financial giants’ business plans for the next one to two years, and see which of their innovations are actually being deployed at scale. How much of their envisioned future have they already brought to fruition?

Futu Group: Hong Kong’s Standard-Bearer for Crypto Innovation

One of the companies I am most eager to connect with at Hong Kong FinTech Week is Futu Group.

If we talk about the most notable fintech companies in the second half of 2026, Robinhood is certainly top of mind. As the largest online brokerage in the U.S., it has made sweeping progress across its crypto business lines this year: prediction markets, its native public blockchain Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, pre-IPO market services, and crypto trading, with concrete, tangible advances across all these verticals.

Robinhood no longer sees itself only as a brokerage for trading U.S. stocks. It aims to become the largest crypto platform in the U.S., where domestic and global users can trade crypto, prediction contracts, tokenized stocks, and even meme assets. And it is already delivering on that goal.

Futu, by contrast, can be viewed as the Robinhood of Chinese-speaking markets, and even the wider Asian region.

Masayoshi Son once proposed the "time machine theory": technologies and business models that are first validated in the U.S. often roll out to other markets later. Hong Kong serves as an ideal observation window: by tracking the development of Hong Kong’s financial sector, we can see how U.S.-led financial innovation adapts, evolves, and matures in new markets as it moves to its next stage.

Futu makes for a particularly interesting observation case study.

On one hand, it already boasts a massive base of traditional securities users: as of the end of Q2 2026, Futu’s platform had roughly 31.25 million registered users, and around 3.84 million funded accounts. For a traditional online brokerage, this represents an enormous pipeline of users and assets.

On the other hand, it is accelerating its expansion into the crypto space. Futu’s licensed virtual asset trading platform, PantherTrade (known as "Cheetah Trading" in the Chinese market), has launched full operations, and is working to integrate its services with Futu Securities. According to official disclosures dated October 26, 2026, Futu’s PantherTrade partnered with ChinaAMC (Hong Kong) to launch Hong Kong’s first batch of tokenized public mutual funds that are eligible for 24/7 secondary market trading for retail investors.

What share of these existing users will convert to crypto users? How many will choose to purchase RWA products, or BTC ETF products? These are critical metrics that will give us an early read on the possible trajectory of future crypto innovation in Hong Kong.

Visa and Mastercard: The "Behind-the-Scenes Drivers" Powering Ubiquitous Stablecoin-Linked Cards

The CEO of a stablecoin company once told me: "Across the entire stablecoin-linked card industry, Visa and Mastercard are without a doubt the biggest beneficiaries."

This observation struck me as particularly interesting. Stablecoin-linked cards are an entirely new business born out of the crypto industry, with an initial user base of crypto-native users — yet the players positioned to generate the largest profits along the value chain are the traditional financial giants Visa and Mastercard.

If you regularly use stablecoins, you may have noticed that more and more crypto companies are now issuing stablecoin-linked cards. Whether it is RedotPay, Bitget Wallet, OKX, Binance, or other crypto wallets and trading platforms, users can now use these cards to spend stablecoins like USDT and USDC for everyday purchases.

But there is a key question worth asking: none of these crypto companies have built their own global merchant payment network, so why are their cards accepted at such a large number of merchants worldwide?

The answer, to a large extent, points to Visa and Mastercard.

As the world’s two largest bank card payment networks, Visa and Mastercard act as core infrastructure connecting card issuers, acquirers, and merchants. Crypto companies are responsible for providing wallets, stablecoin balances, and user services; partner banks and issuers handle card issuance and fund settlement; and Visa and Mastercard provide the global payment network that allows these cards to integrate into the traditional commercial system.

Put simply, when a user swipes their card, the transaction does not necessarily happen as a direct on-chain transfer. A user’s stablecoin balance is typically deducted, or converted to fiat currency, during the payment process, with the transaction then completed through the bank card network — merchants ultimately receive local fiat currency for their sales.

And Visa and Mastercard are actively embracing this trend.

In April 2025, Visa partnered with stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge, enabling fintech companies that use Bridge to connect to the Visa card network via API, so users can spend their stablecoin balances directly at merchants that accept Visa. In March 2026, the two parties expanded their partnership further, planning to extend the issuance of these stablecoin-linked cards to more than 100 countries and regions globally.

Visa also disclosed that its transaction volume via stablecoin-linked cards reached roughly $5.2 billion in 2025, representing a 319% year-over-year increase! (MISSING) As of 2026, its global stablecoin-linked card program includes more than 160 initiatives, covering over 50 countries.

Mastercard is also accelerating similar strategic moves.

In April 2025, Mastercard announced partnerships with companies including OKX and Nuvei to explore end-to-end stablecoin payment flows from crypto wallets to merchant point-of-sale systems. In May, Mastercard partnered with MoonPay to enable enterprises and fintech companies to issue Mastercard cards linked to stablecoin balances. Users can spend with stablecoins, while merchants receive payments exactly as they would for regular bank card transactions.

From MetaMask, Kraken, and Bybit, to OKX and MoonPay, a growing number of crypto-native enterprises are building connections to traditional bank card networks.

Underlying this trend is a critical industry shift: stablecoin companies do not necessarily need to build their own global payment networks. As long as they can connect to Visa and Mastercard, they can unlock access to billions of global consumer scenarios for on-chain dollars.

For Visa and Mastercard, this represents a new opportunity for business expansion. They do not need to issue USDT or USDC themselves, nor do they need to become stablecoin issuers. As long as they continue to control key touchpoints including the global payment network, merchant acceptance, and transaction processing, they can capture a share of the growth in the stablecoin payments market.

That is why at this Hong Kong FinTech Week, I am eager to learn more about Visa and Mastercard’s latest plans for stablecoin payments: How will they partner with crypto wallets, stablecoin issuers, and payment companies going forward? Will stablecoins move beyond today’s stablecoin-linked card use cases, and expand into cross-border remittances, corporate payments, and global commercial settlement?

Perhaps the real drivers behind mass commercial adoption of stablecoins are not just the companies that issue them, but also these traditional financial infrastructure giants that already operate global payment networks.

Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Space: Three Well-Funded Companies to Watch

When looking at Hong Kong’s stablecoin startup ecosystem, there are three companies I believe deserve close attention: RedotPay, PhotonPay, and RD Technologies.

All three are Hong Kong-rooted, unlisted fintech companies that have been among the most active fundraisers in Hong Kong’s stablecoin and payment infrastructure space over the past two years. Each has raised more than $40 million in total funding, putting them in the top tier of Hong Kong stablecoin firms: RD Technologies has raised approximately $90 million to date, while RedotPay’s total funding is close to $200 million.

If I could only select a small number of stablecoin companies for in-depth conversations at this Hong Kong FinTech Week, these three would definitely be on my shortlist.

These three companies represent distinct directions for stablecoin commercialization.

RedotPay, headquartered in Central, Hong Kong, primarily offers consumer-facing stablecoin payment services, including crypto payment cards, wallets, and cross-border payments. It raised a cumulative $194 million in funding in 2025. Recent market reports indicate the company is considering confidentially filing for a U.S. IPO by the end of 2026, with a potential valuation of $4 billion to $5 billion.

PhotonPay, with its global headquarters in Hong Kong, initially built its core business on corporate cross-border payments, and is now integrating stablecoins into its global financial infrastructure. It primarily serves enterprise clients, offering global receivables and payables, multi-currency accounts, card issuance, and local clearing services. On October 29, 2026, PhotonPay announced the completion of a $40 million Series C round, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from SBI Group.

RD Technologies, headquartered in Hong Kong and founded in 2020, focuses on stablecoins, corporate payments, and financial infrastructure that connects traditional finance and Web3. In July 2025, the company completed a nearly $40 million Series A2 round. According to my research, it is also actively expanding its stablecoin business in Africa, as well as building out the application ecosystem for its U.S. dollar stablecoin RDUSD.

These three firms — one focused on consumer use cases, one deeply embedded in corporate cross-border payments, and one exploring compliant stablecoins and financial infrastructure — represent several of the distinct business models that are taking shape across Hong Kong’s stablecoin industry.

For RedotPay, I want to learn what real-world scenarios drive consumers to actually use stablecoin payments; for PhotonPay, I want to understand why enterprises are willing to integrate stablecoins into their day-to-day receivables, payables, and fund management; for RD Technologies, I am most focused on how compliant stablecoins connect with Hong Kong’s existing banking system, payment networks, and financial institutions, and how the company can identify its competitive strengths and target markets across the global stablecoin landscape.

The answers to these questions will help us judge the long-term commercial value of the stablecoin ecosystem Hong Kong is building.

Ant International: The Ubiquitous Fintech Giant

Ant International and its parent group Ant Group are among the most important entities to study at this year’s Hong Kong FinTech Week.

While companies like RedotPay and PhotonPay represent the exploratory efforts of a new generation of stablecoin payment startups, what makes Ant International particularly notable is that it already operates a massive global payment network, and is now working to extend that network into blockchain and on-chain finance.

First, Ant International already operates its own Whale blockchain platform, primarily used for global fund management, cross-border payments, and inter-institutional fund settlement. It has previously partnered with international financial institutions including Standard Chartered and HSBC to explore blockchain-based cross-border fund management and settlement using tokenized deposits.

Second, the Ant ecosystem is actively building out stablecoin and public blockchain infrastructure.

Both Ant International and Ant Digital Technologies have previously expressed interest in applying for Hong Kong stablecoin issuance licenses. At the same time, Ant Digital launched Jovay, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built for institutional-grade use cases such as RWA.

Additionally, there is a notable independent public blockchain called Pharos. Its core team is made up of former Ant Group blockchain business unit staff, and it has established a strategic partnership with Ant Digital, with a focus on RWA asset tokenization and institutional-grade financial infrastructure.

From blockchain platforms like Whale, to stablecoins, to Jovay launched by Ant Digital, and Pharos — which has close ties to the Ant ecosystem — Ant and its affiliated teams have built a multi-layered presence across the blockchain space.

Once Ant obtains the relevant licenses, it is well positioned to quickly capture share in relevant niche markets, leveraging its existing global payment network and financial institution partnerships.

After all, Ant International’s biggest competitive advantage may not be its ability to launch another public blockchain, but the massive merchant and user network it has already built. Its global payment network connects over 150 million merchants and 2 billion user accounts.

In recent years, I have conducted on-site research on payment systems across roughly 20 countries and regions, and have seen firsthand how far Ant International’s business reach extends.

Across markets including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, I have been able to make Alipay payments across a range of different use cases. These firsthand experiences have given me a tangible sense of the scale of coverage of Ant International’s built-out global payment network.

Finally, there is a notable capital market development worth tracking.

In July 2026, Ant International announced it had completed a $1.2 billion Series A round, with participation from Ant Group, Alibaba, and multiple international investment institutions. Multiple media outlets have previously reported that Ant International may launch its Hong Kong IPO within 2026. However, as of now, no official confirmation of the listing timeline has been released, and media reports should not be interpreted as evidence that the company has already submitted its listing application.

If the IPO moves forward as planned, Ant International will serve as a critical case study for tracking the capitalization journey of global payment and fintech companies.

Standard Chartered, HSBC, OSL: Three Pathways for Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Market

There are three more companies worth close attention in Hong Kong’s stablecoin market: Standard Chartered, HSBC, and OSL.

Each represents a distinct stablecoin commercialization pathway: the Standard Chartered ecosystem is entering via corporate and institutional payments; HSBC is entering via retail users and everyday consumer use cases; and OSL is seeking to build a payment and settlement network for global enterprises, anchored by a U.S. dollar stablecoin.

The first pathway is the enterprise-focused stablecoin offering from the Standard Chartered ecosystem.

Strictly speaking, the entity issuing the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP is not Standard Chartered Bank itself, but Anchorpoint — a joint venture co-founded by Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HKT, and Animoca Brands. Standard Chartered is a key shareholder in the venture, and provides banking infrastructure support for HKDAP.

HKDAP initially took an institution-first approach, targeting corporate clients and professional investors, with a focus on use cases including cross-border payments, corporate fund management, and tokenized fund subscription and settlement.

In August 2026, HKDAP began its phased launch, with Standard Chartered Hong Kong as its first bank distribution partner. For Standard Chartered, the value of stablecoins extends beyond payments: it is about leveraging 24/7 on-chain settlement capabilities to improve cross-border corporate capital flows and global treasury management.

The second pathway is HSBC’s retail-focused Hong Kong dollar stablecoin offering.

Unlike the Standard Chartered ecosystem, which entered from the corporate side, HSBC chose to focus on the retail financial market it knows best.

In April 2026, HSBC was granted one of Hong Kong’s first batch of stablecoin issuance licenses, and began its phased launch of the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin RedCoin via its PayMe platform on October 23.

HSBC’s competitive advantage lies in its existing user entry points: PayMe already has over 3.3 million users, and HSBC Hong Kong’s mobile banking app has a massive existing customer base. In the future, users will be able to use the familiar banking and payment apps they already use to make personal transfers, pay merchants, and even subscribe to tokenized investment products using Hong Kong dollar stablecoins.

The core of this pathway is bringing stablecoins directly into ordinary consumers’ daily financial lives, so users do not need to be existing crypto users to access on-chain payment capabilities.

The third pathway is OSL’s U.S. dollar stablecoin and global payment network offering.

Unlike the first two players, which have primarily built their offerings around Hong Kong dollar stablecoins, OSL has chosen to launch the U.S. dollar stablecoin USDGO.

In February 2026, OSL announced the launch of USDGO on its platform. It is a U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank in the U.S., with OSL acting as brand partner and distributor. It is backed by 1:1 U.S. dollar reserves, and targets use cases including corporate fund management, liquidity management, and cross-border payment settlement.

This means OSL is not just aiming to operate as a digital asset trading platform; it wants to evolve into the infrastructure connecting stablecoins, traditional financial institutions, and the payment needs of global enterprises.

From the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP, to HSBC’s RedCoin, to the U.S. dollar stablecoin USDGO, the three companies have chosen distinct entry points, serving corresponding customer segments and business models.

One built around corporate capital flows, one built around ordinary consumers, and one built around the global U.S. dollar payment and settlement network.

Which of these three pathways will prove its business model first? Will Hong Kong-issued Hong Kong dollar stablecoins actually gain traction in everyday payments and cross-border trade? And how will U.S. dollar stablecoins integrate with Hong Kong’s local financial system?

These are all questions I hope to get answers to when I am on site at Hong Kong FinTech Week.

Of course, beyond these 10 companies closely tied to crypto industry development, there are many other notable enterprises and innovative solutions to see at Hong Kong FinTech Week. I hope this list can serve as a starting point for discussion, and look forward to connecting with more industry participants on site, to observe together how traditional finance and crypto are colliding and integrating.