Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co.’s international unit is planning to apply for stablecoin licenses in Singapore and Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the matter.
Singapore-based Ant International will apply for the stablecoin issuer’s license in Hong Kong as soon as the city’s Stablecoins Ordinance goes into effect in August, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The company is also planning to seek a related permit in Luxembourg, they added.
The move is designed to bolster the fintech firm’s blockchain operation underpinning its cross-border payment and treasury management services, the people said. Ant processed more than US$1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) of global transactions last year, a third of which were handled by its blockchain-based Whale platform, they said.
An Ant International spokesperson confirmed that the company plans to apply for a fiat-referenced stablecoin issuer’s license in Hong Kong once the ordinance takes effect.
Spokespeople for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier and the Monetary Authority of Singapore declined to comment.
Since its record initial public offering was halted in 2020, Ant has been developing new initiatives to drive growth as its lucrative online lending business got handicapped by regulators in China.
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Overseas, the Ant International arm established an independent board, setting the stage for a spinoff and potential IPO. The unit generated nearly US$3 billion in revenue for 2024 and has produced two consecutive years of adjusted profit, Bloomberg reported in May.
Ant International could fetch an IPO valuation ranging from US$8 billion to US$24 billion if it were to list in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Increasingly, the unit’s treasury business has shown growth potential due to the sheer amount of transactions it handles for the e-commerce platforms of its affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., as well as external clients.
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The treasury business, which is underpinned by the Whale platform, uses blockchain technology, including encryption and artificial intelligence, to improve the efficiency and transparency of fund transfers.
The Whale platform currently supports multiple tokenised assets from banks and institutions around the world. It uses privacy computing technologies such as homomorphic encryption and enables multiparty verification.
The company has signed collaboration agreements with more than 10 banks globally including HSBC Holdings Plc, BNP Paribas SA, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Standard Chartered Plc. This week, it also formed a strategic partnership with Deutsche Bank AG to work on payment solutions and treasury management.
Stablecoins are digital assets designed to hold a steady value, usually pegged to another currency. They are crucial to the functioning of crypto markets, with about US$243 billion of them in circulation in May.
Regulators around the world are trying to put rules around the sector, fearing the risk of stablecoin crashes and the potential for massive money laundering. US lawmakers are working on legislation to regulate stablecoin companies.
As crypto adoption has grown, many companies have slowly made their way into the space, including financial and technology heavyweights. A high-profile attempt by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc. to launch a stablecoin in 2019 later unravelled after a backlash. The rollout in 2023 of a stablecoin from PayPal Holdings Inc. marked the first effort from a big financial company.
There are also tokens that can act like stablecoins for use as collateral during trading, like tokenised money market funds. Asset managers including BlackRock Inc. and Franklin Templeton have created these kinds of products in recent years.
