From a Gold Bar to AI Agents: What Did Hong Kong FinTech Week Deliver?

A 400-ounce gold bar was settled in tokenized form between two banks in Hong Kong, with payment made using tokenized deposits.

Written by: Sanqing, Foresight News

On November 2, the opening day of Hong Kong FinTech Week, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, revealed that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's EnsembleTX has completed its first interbank transaction involving "tokenized gold × tokenized deposits." In this transaction, each gold token corresponds to a 400-ounce standard gold bar stored in the Hong Kong treasury, priced based on the Hong Kong gold benchmark price (HAU).

On the same day, the Monetary Authority issued four press releases: EnsembleTX has switched to using tokenized central bank currency for 24/7 settlement, launched the SAGE project for agency-style finance, introduced a post-quantum cryptography (PQC) toolkit in collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and expects the Faster Payment System to connect with UnionPay International by the end of 2026. These four initiatives correspond to the "FinTech 2030" DART framework proposed by the Monetary Authority last year, which includes four pillars: data and payments, artificial intelligence, resilience, and tokenization.

Among these, the two main lines most closely related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are: first, tokenized assets and tokenized currencies are beginning to circulate around the clock within the same settlement network; second, the identity and responsibilities of AI agents participating in financial activities have been included in the regulatory agenda.

The On-Chain Journey of a Gold Bar

According to Christopher Hui, this is the first use case since EnsembleTX entered its trial phase in November 2025, connecting tokenized deposits and tokenized gold in the same interbank real transaction.

The transaction involved gold issued by Zhaojin Mining, with China Construction Bank (Asia) acting as the gold custodian and payment bank, and Bank of East Asia along with UnionPay Tongbao serving as the receiving bank; the technology was provided by Ant Group's tokenization platform Anvita TaaS, running on Ant Group's self-developed Layer2 network Jovay.

This transaction did not change the existing bank gold account system and property transfer path, but introduced an on-chain certificate gToken for physical gold, synchronizing ownership change records on-chain for all parties involved in the transaction to verify the gold holding status based on the same on-chain record.

In terms of fund settlement, tokenized deposits were routed through the Ensemble intercommunication layer to the Hong Kong dollar real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), achieving instant cross-bank fund transfers. According to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ant Group considered compatibility with the Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing System (HKPMCC) when designing this platform.

This progress also aligns with the construction of Hong Kong's gold market infrastructure. The Hong Kong Gold Central Clearing and Settlement System began trial operations on July 7, 2026, and simultaneously launched the HAU price code, which is planned to be officially used in the first quarter of 2027, at which point it will connect with RTGS for gold-silver settlement.

On the same day, the Hong Kong Gold Exchange and CITIC Bank (International) announced the completion of pilot testing for gold trading supported by tokenized deposits under the Ensemble project. As the only settlement bank for the exchange, Xinyin International plans to launch commercial services in 2027, allowing traditional deposits and tokenized deposits to operate in parallel, supporting 24/7 instant settlement for gold trading.

At the legislative level, Christopher Hui stated that the SAR government is formulating legislative proposals for the regulatory framework for virtual asset trading, custody, and provision of advisory and management services, aiming to submit a draft amendment to the Legislative Council by 2026.

Underlying Transition: From RTGS to Tokenized Central Bank Currency

When EnsembleTX was launched in November 2025, interbank settlement of tokenized deposits had to rely on the Hong Kong dollar RTGS. The Monetary Authority stated at that time that the trial environment would gradually upgrade to 24/7 settlement using tokenized central bank currency (CeBM). The press release on November 2 confirmed that this upgrade has been implemented, allowing participating banks and industry pioneers to settle tokenized transactions instantly using CeBM outside of traditional operating hours.

Since tokenized deposits belong to commercial bank currency, interbank transfers still require central bank currency for final settlement. Previously, this step was limited by the operating hours of RTGS, but now the central bank currency itself, as the final settlement asset, has also been put on-chain.

The number of participating institutions has also expanded: the number of banks offering tokenized deposits increased from 7 to 12, with new additions including Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), CITIC Bank (International), ICBC Asia, Industrial Bank Hong Kong Branch, and Nanyang Commercial Bank; the number of industry pioneers increased from 13 to 20, with new additions including Xunqing Settlement, China Petroleum Finance (Hong Kong), EX.IO, Starry Road Technology, HashKey Group, JD Technology, and Cheetah Trading (Hong Kong).

In addition, the Monetary Authority has completed trial transactions of tokenized foreign exchange fund notes conducted by recognized dealers, and the next step will expand the trial scope to regulated stablecoins. The first two stablecoin issuer licenses in Hong Kong were issued to Anchor Financial and HSBC on April 10, 2026. At the same time, the Monetary Authority is collaborating with Cyberport to launch the "tConnect Launchpad" for validating tokenized application scenarios.

The CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission, Ashley Alder, stated that tokenized deposits will be used to support corporate treasury management and 24/7 trading of tokenized funds on licensed platforms. On October 26, the SFC just approved two tokenized money market funds from Huaxia Fund (Hong Kong) for 24/7 trading on the licensed platform PantherTrade under Futu.

Setting Rules for AI Agents and Preparing for the Quantum Era

The newly launched SAGE project, which stands for Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement, focuses on four areas: application scenarios, agency identity, interoperability standards, and legal and regulatory frameworks.

Among them, application scenarios are divided into three categories: B2C agency shopping and daily payments, B2B procurement and treasury management, and M2M usage-based billing for digital service payments; the agency identity section proposes "Know Your Agent (KYA)," requiring verification of the AI Agent's identity and authorization limits before allowing participation in financial activities.

The accompanying expert group for agency-style finance consists of 22 members, covering 11 financial institutions, 7 technology service providers, 3 professional service organizations, and 1 academic, including well-known institutions in the crypto market such as Circle Hong Kong, Animoca Brands, and Anchor Financial, which holds a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer license.

Following the announcement of the "ART" framework to promote responsible AI applications in the banking sector on October 15, the Monetary Authority has also released a discussion paper on the application of agency-style AI in banks, seeking governance opinions from the industry.

In terms of system resilience, the Monetary Authority and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology jointly launched a post-quantum cryptography toolkit to assist banks in assessing encryption technologies and interdependencies, prioritizing transitions, and developing timelines. The first quantum readiness index announced by the Monetary Authority in July 2026 scored only 2.3 out of 10, with about 32% of surveyed banks yet to begin transition work. The Monetary Authority aims to raise this index to 10 before 2030.

In terms of cross-border payments, the Faster Payment System is expected to connect with UnionPay International by the end of 2026, gradually supporting users to make payments to over 100 million merchants by scanning codes in Hong Kong, mainland China, and more than 40 overseas markets.

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