Hong Kong plans to launch wholesale CBDC by year-end to support tokenized government bond settlement

Odaily: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency for interbank settlement by the end of this year, as part of Project EnsembleTX, to enable 24-hour settlement of tokenized deposit transactions.

The project entered a real-transaction pilot phase in late 2025. Currently, cross-bank settlement still relies on a real-time gross settlement system that operates only during business hours; the wholesale CBDC is also planned for use in settling derivatives transactions during after-hours sessions on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with related real-money transactions targeted to go live within this year.