Mastercard and Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong (SCBHK) have successfully conducted the inaugural live trial of Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN). The test involved tokenizing carbon credits within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Fintech Supervisory Sandbox. The project consisted of a client from SCBHK’s virtual bank, Mox Bank, depositing funds into Mox and expressing interest in purchasing a carbon credit. Mox then requested SCBHK to tokenize the carbon credit using tokenization service provider Libeara, which was launched by Standard Chartered’s venture arm, SC Ventures. The MTN tokenized the deposit, and an atomic swap, which allows for real-time swaps across different blockchains, was executed between the two tokens.
Mastercard unveiled the MTN in June 2023, utilizing its private blockchain. Prior to this trial, it had conducted test runs in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of Australia, using wrapped central bank digital currency (CBDC), and with the HKMA, using its e-HKD CBDC. However, neither of these CBDCs are currently in operation. Helena Chen, the Managing Director of Hong Kong and Macau at Mastercard, stated that the HKMA has reportedly exerted pressure on Hong Kong banks, including SCBHK, to enhance their services for cryptocurrency exchanges. SCBHK is actively involved in the development of the HKMA’s Project Ensemble, the e-HKD pilot program, and the multinational Project mBridge. The e-HKD pilot project commenced its second phase in March.
Standard Chartered has also participated in projects involving SWIFT and CBDC, as well as collaborating with U.K. Finance on the Regulated Liability Network. Additionally, SC Ventures established a crypto fund in the United Arab Emirates in November. In a separate initiative, HSBC bank and China’s Ant Group tested tokenized deposit transactions in an HKMA sandbox using Ant Group’s blockchain in November. HSBC also offers Bitcoin and Ethereum futures exchange-traded fund trading in Hong Kong.
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