Mastercard has executed its first live test of the Mastercard Multi-Token Network (MTN) involving tokenized deposits and tokenized assets in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong (SCBHK) and subsidiaries. Mastercard introduced MTN in mid-2023.
This proof of concept was completed as part of the Hong Kong Fintech Supervisory Sandbox. It involved a client of Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong digital bank, Mox Bank, buying a carbon credit. Mox requested SCBHK to tokenize the carbon credit, a task executed by Libeara, the tokenization platform incubated by Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures. Mastercard’s MTN was used to tokenize the deposit and execute an atomic swap between the tokenized deposit and the carbon credit. Ultimately the Mox client received the tokenized carbon credit in their wallet.
“Using the Mastercard MTN, Mastercard is energized to partner with industry-leading players like SCBHK, Mox and Libeara to develop real-world applications that reshape how consumers and businesses connect, interact, and transact,” said Helena Chen, Mastercard managing director, Hong Kong & Macau.
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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) recently launched Project Ensemble to explore wholesale CBDC and tokenized deposits. In addition, there have been multiple tokenized deposit experiments outside the project, including two by HSBC trialing tokenization with Ant (the owner of Alipay) and Visa. Alongside the four big Hong Kong banks, Ant is part of an architecture community that has launched to support the initiative.
“The tokenization of real-world assets and the potential use of different forms of tokenized currency is integral to the future of the financial industry,” said Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong. “Under the guidance of the HKMA, we are proud to pioneer this project with our virtual bank Mox, incubated venture Libeara, and longtime partner Mastercard, with the objective of catalyzing the adoption of tokenization in financial assets.”
Standard Charterd’s Hong Kong digital currency trials
Standard Chartered Hong Kong is a participant in Ensemble as well as the eHKD retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) trials and mBridge. That’s the multi-CBDC cross border payment project involving the BIS and the central banks of Hong Kong, China, Thailand and the UAE.
