What a week for Hong Kong’s fintech community! 🇭🇰 Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK 2026 wrapped up last week 6 November, bringing together more than 48,000 visitors from over 120 economies, alongside 1,100+ speakers and 800 exhibitors. 🌏 With banks, regulators, technology companies and founders sharing the programme, there was plenty to explore across #digitalassets, #AI and the future of payments. 💰 Following our visit to CVCF’s Agentic Economy Summit, one question stayed with us at OAX. How will these developments translate into services that people and businesses use every day? Several highlights from the week offered promising answers: 1⃣ HSBC's #RedCoin brought stablecoins closer to everyday payments. Launched on 23 October through #PayMe, HSBC’s HKD stablecoin had attracted 50,000 users by the time Group CEO Georges Elhedery spoke at FinTech Week. 👏 Its availability through a familiar payment app gives people a straightforward way to try it. We’re interested to see how that early uptake develops into regular use, and how the planned connection to tokenised investments progresses! 2⃣ The infrastructure behind tokenisation also took a step forward. The HKMA advanced its Project Ensemble pilot to support 24/7 interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions in tokenised central bank money. With 12 participating banks and 20 industry pioneers, the expanded pilot creates more opportunities to test how businesses manage money and transact in tokenised assets beyond conventional banking hours. For a market that operates globally, the ability to settle around the clock matters. 🕒 3⃣ AI agents brought fresh questions about how financial services should work. Standard Chartered’s Bill Winters discussed the need for digital money and interoperable infrastructure as agentic commerce develops, while Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson highlighted #blockchain’s potential to improve payments and settlement. 🌐 HSBC also outlined plans for an AI and Emerging Technology Institute in Hong Kong in 2027. These conversations connect closely with the Know Your Agent discussions we heard at CVCF. As agents gain the ability to act on our behalf, businesses need clear ways to define their authority and oversee their decisions. ✅ The HKMA’s newly launched Project SAGE, which will explore #agentic finance applications and their governance, is one development we’ll be following. The week also brought news of changing business priorities: https://t.co/BrTPMEBZ8G confirmed that its Hong Kong consumer app services will end on 1 February 2027, while it continues pursuing a local licence for its institutional exchange. Alongside the new launches, this shows how firms are still working out which services and business models they can sustain in the market. 😅 For us at OAX, the most exciting part is seeing more opportunities to put these ideas into practice, from paying a merchant with a #stablecoin to settling a tokenised transaction outside banking hours. Thank you to the organisers, speakers and wider community for an engaging week. We look forward to following what people build with these developments in the year ahead! 🙌 Photo credits: HKMA, China Daily #HKFinTechWeek #hongkong #finTech #Web3 #stablecoins #tokenisation #AgenticAI #bitcoin #crypto