Hong Kong-based e-commerce firm JD.com plans to issue its own stablecoin backed by the Hong Kong dollar by the end of 2025 and potentially support other stablecoins.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, the e-CEO of JD CoinChain Technology Liu Peng that the e-commerce platform has registered itself for the government’s stablecoin issuer “sandbox,” becoming one of the three companies in the region to join the initiative.
According to Peng, JD.com’s testing phase within the sandbox programme is progressing smoothly. He hinted that the platform may plan to launch stablecoins backed by the Hong Kong dollar and other currencies soon.
“As of early June, we have mainly tested the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, and will test other fiat stablecoins later. Based on market demand, we expect the two stablecoins to be issued at the same time,” said Peng in his interview.
He said that the specific schedule for the launch still depends on the newly legalized Stablecoin Ordinance regulation. However, he expects the firm to already obtain a license by the fourth quarter of 2025, and launch a “JD Stablecoin” around the same time.
“JD Stablecoin will be issued on the public chain, and anyone can publicly view the issuance volume and other data,” he added.
Peng claimed that JD.com’s stablecoin is able to accelerate transactions from days to seconds, reducing the cost by at least half compared to traditional transfers. He added that on-chain fund turnover is also faster compared to regular online transactions.
These advantages are believed to attract international trade participants to adopt JD.com’s stablecoin.
As for whether the platform will be able to support other types of stablecoins like USD-backed tokens such as Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC) or even China’s RMB-backed stablecoins, Peng said that it all depends on the supervisory regulations from the issuers.
Earlier this month, The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced that it has passed the Stablecoin Ordinance. The region’s stablecoin regulations is set to come into effect on August 1, allowing businesses to obtain licenses to issue HKD-backed stablecoins.
