With Ant International entering the market, has the "big battle" for stablecoins begun?

Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Edited by: TB, ChainCatcher

Stablecoin, a new battlefield for global payments, is something that no technology giant wants to miss.

As the new policy on Hong Kong's stablecoin regulation is about to be implemented, Ant Group has taken action. Ant International, its international business entity, plans to apply for a stablecoin issuer license as soon as the policy takes effect, and simultaneously promote compliance layout in markets such as Singapore and Luxembourg.

JD.com, Ant, Standard Chartered Bank... A "big battle" about stablecoins is beginning.

Will Ant's stablecoin layout open up new space of $150 billion?

The news started on June 10. Deutsche Bank announced a cooperation with Ant International, and the two parties will explore cutting-edge areas such as tokenized deposits and stablecoin solutions. This multinational financial technology cooperation has become a prelude to Ant International's stablecoin layout.

Two days later, Ant International announced that it would apply for a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer license. It said that it is accelerating investment and expanding cooperation in global treasury management, and investing AI, blockchain and stablecoin innovation in real and reliable large-scale applications.

This move may show that Ant Group has included stablecoins at the core of its global financial technology strategy, with the intention of building a "stable anchor" covering cross-border capital flows. The news triggered a strong market reaction. Hong Kong stocks "Ant Financial Concept Stocks" rose collectively, Yunfeng Financial once soared 98% during the session, and Shiteng Holdings rose nearly 15%.

It is worth noting that according to Bloomberg, Ant International has processed more than US$1 trillion in global funds in 2024, with more than one-third of which were completed through its blockchain platform Whale. It is roughly estimated that more than US$300 billion of funds are circulating on the chain. If half of them can be extended to the stablecoin scenario, then the theoretical space for stablecoin transaction volume within Ant 's existing business system alone has reached the level of US$150 billion.

Ants' Ten Years Link

In fact, Ant Group's exploration of Web3 has been quietly launched and has continued to advance in the past decade.

As early as 2015, Ant Financial established a blockchain team to start systematic research on this cutting-edge technology. The following year, the first blockchain charity application it developed, "Heard-impaired Children Regain New Voice", was successfully launched, realizing full-chain tracking of the flow of donations, becoming a representative case of the implementation of early blockchain technology in China.

In 2018, Ant Blockchain completed the transformation from a "technology project" to a "platform ecosystem", officially launched the partner program, and opened the BaaS blockchain platform to the outside world. This strategic change also laid the foundation for subsequent product explosions.

In 2019, Ant blockchain products began to be implemented at an accelerated pace: the supply chain finance field launched a "double-chain connection" to serve the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises; the 400 million overseas shopping products on Tmall Double 11 achieved origin traceability through blockchain; the original image copyright protection platform "Qujiu" was launched; it even opened up the blockchain cross-border remittance network from Malaysia to Pakistan, showing a strong global ambition.

In 2020, Ant officially upgraded Ant blockchain to "Ant Chain" and announced that its average daily number of chains has exceeded 100 million.

In 2021, Ant Chain entered the NFT field and launched payment code skin NFT.

In 2023, Ant launched its Web3-focused sub-brand ZAN in Hong Kong, providing compliant technical solutions to overseas markets. In the same year, Ant Group cooperated with HSBC to complete the internal corporate payment transaction test based on tokenized deposits, integrating traditional finance and on-chain technology into real scenarios for the first time.

In 2024, Ant Group completed its reorganization, and its three companies, Ant International, OceanBase and Ant Digital Technology, operated independently, and established board of directors and CEO structures respectively. Since then, Ant International and Ant Digital Technology have continued to make arrangements in the Web3 field, especially in the RWA field.

• In December 2024, Sui reached a cooperation with Ant Digital Technology to promote the implementation of RWA in the new energy industry.
• In April 2025, Ant Digital announced the launch of the Layer2 blockchain Jovay for overseas markets.
• In May 2025, Ant International became the first corporate customer in Hong Kong to use HSBC tokenized deposit services.
• ......

From the underlying chain to compliant overseas travel, from public welfare scenarios to global payments, Ant continues to build its own Web3 territory with a path that is not noisy but has a very strategic depth.

Giants compete for cards

As Hong Kong launches stablecoin sandbox testing and makes it clear that the card is about to be launched, a race of "giants competing for cards" is quietly taking place. Ants are the representatives of the first move, but this game is already full of ready players.

As early as July last year, five giants have become participants in the "sandbox" of stablecoin issuers: JD.com Coin Chain Technology, Yuanbi Technology, Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom.

In addition, the following companies have been interested in participating in the issuance of stablecoins in Hong Kong:

• In November 2023, Dr. Xiao Feng, founder of Hashkey Group, said in his speech that Hashkey Group will jointly issue stablecoins in Hong Kong with Yuanbi Technology and ZhongAn Bank.
• In May 2024, Hong Kong-listed company Yucheng Kejin reached a cooperation with Chainlink, intending to explore the issuance of Hong Kong stablecoins

Judging from the current players' composition, the Hong Kong stablecoin track is gathering three types of forces: traditional financial institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank and ZhongAn Bank regard stablecoins as a test site for tokenized deposits and on-chain accounts; technology and e-commerce giants such as Ant Group and JD.com focus more on integrating stablecoins into their ecosystems and promoting the application of cross-border payment and digital consumption scenarios; and the native forces of Web3 represented by Animoca Brands and HashKey Group are trying to use Hong Kong's policy window to create competitive on-chain stable assets.

Ant Group's strategic layout not only shows its keen insight into global market dynamics, but also shows a new direction for payment and capital flow. With more giants coming in, the maturity and innovation of the stablecoin ecosystem will push the global payment system into a new era.