Citibank estimates that the Hong Kong stablecoin market is approximately HK$124.8 billion, benefiting licensed exchanges and other ecosystem participants

BlockBeats News, March 17th, according to a China Securities report, Citibank's research department expects that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will announce the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses within this month. Citibank estimated, drawing on the experience of mainland payment institutions, that the scale of stablecoins circulating on the Hong Kong platform in the future will be approximately $16 billion (about HK$124.8 billion, with an +/- $8 billion fluctuation). If combined with the surge in on-chain activities and overseas demand, there is still room for growth in this scale.

The analysis points out that licensing will promote the compliance of the stablecoin ecosystem, and VATP will become a necessary path. However, as the ecosystem is currently in its early stages, it is expected that in the next 2 to 3 years, key Hong Kong market participants such as OSL will still need significant investment and will face short-term profit challenges.