The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the second phase of its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot and a regulatory sandbox for stablecoin projects.

The HKMA completed the first phase of its pilot retail CBDC, called the e-Hong Kong dollar (e-HKD), in October 2023, working with 16 private firms. That phase tested retail use cases including offline and programmable payments, tokenised deposits and settling both Web3 transactions and tokenised assets.

The second phase will explore