The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is gearing up for the second phase of the e-HKD (e-Hong Kong dollar) pilot program as it announced the successful completion of the Phase 1 trial of its in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The HKMA launched the e-HKD pilot program in November 2022 to evaluate the commercial viability of an in-house CBDC as part of its “Fintech 2025” strategy. Phase 1 was dedicated to studying e-HKD in six areas, which include full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, settlement of Web3 transactions and settlement of tokenized assets.