Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced on Thursday the launch of EnsembleTX, marking the official transition of its Ensemble project into a trial phase focused on enabling transactions involving tokenized deposits and digital assets within a controlled environment.

The initial focus will be on empowering market participants to utilise tokenised deposits in tokenised money market fund transactions, and to manage liquidity and treasury needs in real time, the city’s de facto central bank said in a statement.

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation said it has completed a HK$3.8 million tokenised deposit interbank transfer for its client Ant International, marking one of the first transactions under the HKMA’s EnsembleTX.

The lender said it has connected its tokenised deposit service, launched earlier this year, to the EnsembleTX interoperability platform to enable real-time interbank transfers of tokenised deposits.

Standard Chartered Hong Kong also announced it has successfully executed two real-value transactions. The bank facilitated a cross-bank tokenised deposit transfer for Ant International’s affiliated companies and, acting as custodian for China Asset Management (Hong Kong), received Futu Securities' tokenised deposits from BOC Hong Kong (2388) for a tokenised money market fund subscription.

Mary Huen Wai-yi, chief executive of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said the successful execution demonstrates the strong potential of tokenised assets to enable seamless interbank settlement, and could become an essential element of next-generation financial market infrastructure.

Interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions will initially be facilitated via the Hong Kong Dollar Real Time Gross Settlement system, and the pilot environment will be progressively upgraded and enhanced to support settlement in tokenised Central Bank Money on a 24/7 basis, HKMA said.

HKMA's chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man described EnsembleTX as a "pivotal moment", upgrading from proof-of-concept to a real-value setting.

Securities and Futures Commission chief executive Julia Leung Fung-yee said the equity regulator is committed to walking with the HKMA and the market participants in driving forward advanced tokenisation use cases leveraging EnsembleTX and building a dynamic and future-ready financial ecosystem.

Hong Kong launches EnsembleTX pilot for tokenised deposits