Ant International enters the game, and the stablecoin "giant battle" begins?

Author: Fairy,

ChainCatcher Editor: TB, ChainCatcher

Stablecoins, this new battlefield of global payments, no one among tech giants wants to miss it.

When Hong Kong's new stablecoin regulatory policy is about to land, Ant Group has made a move. Its international business entity, Ant International, plans to apply for a stablecoin issuer license as soon as the policy takes effect, and simultaneously promote compliance layout in Singapore, Luxembourg and other markets.

JD.com, Ant, Standard Chartered Bank... A "battle for the giants" over stablecoins is kicking off.

Will Ant stablecoin layout open up $150 billion in new space?

The rumours began on June 10 when Deutsche Bank announced a partnership with Ant International to explore cutting-edge areas such as tokenised deposits and stablecoin solutions. This cross-border fintech cooperation has become a prelude to Ant International's stablecoin layout.

Two days later, Ant International announced that it would apply for a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer license. It said that it is accelerating investment and expanding cooperation in global treasury management to bring AI, blockchain and stablecoin innovations to real, reliable large-scale applications.

The move may indicate that Ant Group has included stablecoins at the core of its global fintech strategy, with the intention of building a "stable anchor" covering cross-border capital flows. The news triggered a strong reaction from the market, and the Hong Kong stock "Ant Financial Concept Stocks" rose collectively, Yunfeng Financial soared 98% intraday, and Shiteng Holdings rose nearly 15%.

It is worth noting that, according to Bloomberg, Ant International will handle more than $1 trillion in global funds in 2024, more than one-third of which will be done through its blockchain platform Whale, with a rough estimate of more than $300 billion flowing on-chain. If half of them can be extended to the stablecoin scenario, then the theoretical space of stablecoin trading volume in Ant's existing business system alone has reached the level of $150 billion.

Ant's 10-year linkIn

fact, Ant Group's exploration of Web3 has been quietly launched and has continued to advance in the past decade.

As early as 2015, Ant Financial established a blockchain group to start systematic research on this cutting-edge technology. The following year, the first blockchain public welfare application "Hearing Impaired Children Regain a New Voice" developed by it was successfully launched, realising the full chain tracking of the flow of donations, and becoming a representative case of the early implementation of blockchain technology in China.
In 2018, Ant Blockchain completed the transformation from a "technology project" to a "platform ecosystem", officially launched the partner program, and opened up the BaaS blockchain platform to the outside world. This strategic shift also laid the foundation for the subsequent product explosion.

In 2019, Ant Blockchain products began to accelerate their implementation: the supply chain finance field launched the "Double Chain Connect" to serve the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises; Tmall 11.11's 400 million overseas shopping products can be traced back to their origin through the blockchain; The original picture copyright protection platform "Magpie Chisel" was launched; It has even opened up a blockchain cross-border remittance network from Malaysia to Pakistan, showing strong global ambitions.

In 2020, Ant officially upgraded the Ant Blockchain to "AntChain" and announced that its average daily number of listings has exceeded 100 million.

In 2021, AntChain entered the NFT field and launched a payment code skin NFT.

In 2023, Ant launched ZAN, a Web3-focused sub-brand, in Hong Kong to provide compliant technology solutions for overseas markets. In the same year, Ant Group partnered with HSBC to complete a test of an in-house payment transaction based on tokenised deposits, integrating traditional finance and on-chain technology into a real-world scenario for the first time.

In 2024, Ant Group will complete its restructuring, and its three companies, Ant International, OceanBase, and Ant Digital, will operate independently, with a board of directors and CEO structure respectively. Since then, Ant International and Ant Digital have continued to deploy in the Web3 field, especially in the RWA field.

In December 2024, Sui entered into a partnership with Ant Digital to promote the implementation of RWA in the new energy industry.
In April 2025, Ant Digital announced the launch of Jovay, a Layer2 blockchain for overseas markets.
In May 2025, Ant International became the first corporate customer in Hong Kong to use HSBC's tokenised deposit services.
......

From the underlying chain to the compliance of going overseas, from the public welfare scenario to the global payment, Ant continues to build its own Web3 territory with a non-noisy but very strategic path.

With the launch of the stablecoin sandpit test in Hong Kong and the confirmation of the upcoming licensing system, a race of "giant competition" is quietly staged. Ants are the first to act, but this game is already crowded with players who come prepared.

As early as July last year, five giants have become "sandpit" participants in stablecoin issuers: JD Chain Technology, Yuanbi Technology, Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom.

In addition, the following companies have been interested in participating in the Hong Kong stablecoin issuance:

In November 2023, Dr. Xiao Feng, the founder of Hashkey Group, said in his speech that Hashkey Group will join forces with Yuanbi Technology and ZA Bank to jointly issue stablecoins in Hong Kong.
In May 2024, Arta, a Hong Kong-listed company, partnered with Chainlink to explore a stablecoin issuance in Hong Kong

Judging from the composition of players that have surfaced so far, Hong Kong's stablecoin track is gathering three types of forces: traditional financial institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank and ZA Bank regard stablecoins as a testing ground for tokenised deposits and on-chain accounts; Technology and e-commerce giants such as Ant Group and JD.com are more focused on integrating stablecoins into their ecosystems to promote the application of cross-border payments and digital consumption scenarios. The native forces of Web3, represented by Animoca Brands and HashKey Group, are trying to use Hong Kong's policy window to create competitive on-chain stable assets.

Ant Group's strategic layout not only demonstrates its keen insight into global market dynamics, but also shows a new direction for payment and capital flow. With the influx of more giants, the maturity and innovation of the stablecoin ecosystem will propel the global payment system into a new era.

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