HKMA Establishes Ensemble Project Architecture Working Group to Support Development of Hong Kong’s Tokenization Market

BlockBeats news, May 7, according to official news, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today the establishment of the Ensemble Project Architecture Working Group to work with the industry to establish standards and make recommendations to support the development of Hong Kong's tokenization market. 　　

The working group will promote the formulation of industry standards to support the interoperability between wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDC), tokenized currencies and tokenized assets. The working group will make recommendations on specific issues, and will initially focus on establishing mechanisms for tokenized asset transactions to smoothly conduct interbank settlement of tokenized deposits through wCBDC. The working group will also assist in the design and construction of the Ensemble project sandbox, which is scheduled to be launched in the middle of this year, to further study and test tokenization use cases. 　　

The working group is composed of cross-disciplinary industry representatives, covering regulators, international organizations, academia, local and multinational banks, major players in the digital asset industry, and technology companies. The initial members include the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong Kong Centre of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the CBDC Expert Group (Note 2) and seven private institutions, namely Bank of China (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group, Ant Digital Technology and Microsoft Hong Kong.

In selecting the initial members of the working group, the HKMA carefully considered various factors, including the members' expertise, relevant experience and capabilities, and innovative thinking in promoting the development of Hong Kong's tokenization market. The HKMA will work closely with the industry and review the size and composition of the working group in a timely manner.