Ant Group Stablecoin Strategy Analysis: Global Compliance Deployment and Technical Architecture

Ant Group’s Stablecoin Plan: Reshaping Global Cross-Border Payment Rules

In June 2025, Ant Group’s international business unit announced its intent to immediately apply for a license under Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Issuer Regime” effective August 1, while simultaneously advancing regulatory approvals in Singapore and Luxembourg. This move signals the formal entry of a traditional fintech giant into the compliant stablecoin space. Leveraging Whale—a blockchain platform processing over $1 trillion annually (accounting for 33% of Ant’s cross-border transactions)—Ant plans to reduce foreign exchange loss rates in cross-border payments from 1.2% to 0.3% and shorten settlement cycles from T+2 to T+0, building a closed-loop global payment ecosystem covering 2.5 million merchants.

This market insight article discusses Ant Group’s stablecoin license strategy across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Luxembourg, examining the Whale platform’s technical framework and its global payment ecosystem impact.

Three-Region License Strategy and Regulatory Alignment

The core goal of the Hong Kong license is to comply with the stringent requirements of the “Stablecoin Issuer Regime”:

• Reserve assets must consist of 100% cash and short-term U.S. treasuries (compared to Singapore’s allowance of 80% high-quality liquid assets);

• Minimum registered capital of $20 million and an annual regulatory fee of $500,000;

• Quarterly third-party audits + real-time reserve disclosures.

Ant plans to adopt a segregated account custody model, with cash managed by HSBC and U.S. treasuries entrusted to BlackRock.

Singapore and the EU offer strategic depth through differentiated approaches:

• Singapore has submitted for in-principle approval, aiming to reduce collateral requirements to $10 million under the revised Payment Services Act;

• Luxembourg targets compliance with the EU’s MiCA framework (effective June 30), requiring 1:1 asset backing with 30% in U.S. treasuries and deployment of on-chain zero-knowledge reserve proofs.

Regulatory framework comparison can be found in the JuCoin Global Compliance Database.

Technical Architecture: Hybrid Chain and Real-Time Settlement Engine

The Whale platform’s stablecoin issuance is supported by three key technical pillars:

• Hybrid blockchain architecture compatible with public chains (Ethereum/BSC) and consortium chains (AntChain), allowing enterprise clients to privatize sensitive transactions while retail users benefit from public chain transparency;

• Real-time settlement engine enabling inter-currency settlements with latency <1 second, having processed $333 billion in 2024 with a 62% growth rate—far exceeding industry averages;

• AI-based anti-money laundering system (Alipay Risk Brain) with a false positive rate of just 0.0017%, identifying suspicious transactions through behavioral pattern recognition.

This architecture directly tackles cross-border payment pain points: traditional SWIFT settlement costs account for 6.9% of transaction value, while the Whale platform can reduce fees to 0.15%, saving $870 million annually in the Hong Kong market alone.

Market Impact: Stablecoin Landscape and Financial Infrastructure Transformation

Ant’s entry will reshape two key markets:

Stablecoin Competitive Landscape

Currently, in Hong Kong, Tether (USDT) holds 82% market share, and Circle (USDC) 11%. Ant’s stablecoin, supported by the Alipay+ ecosystem, is projected to capture 17% market share within 12 months. Its core strength lies in merchant penetration—directly connecting to 200,000 Southeast Asian SMEs, whereas Circle only reaches 37,000 corporate clients.

Traditional Finance Displacement

Cross-border remittance services like Western Union (with a 6.9% fee) are rendered uncompetitive compared to Ant’s 0.15% fee. Of the HKMA’s $28 trillion annual settlement volume, 30% is expected to migrate to on-chain channels.

Risks and Challenges: Geopolitical Tensions and Technical Flaws

Regulatory and Political Risks

• Currency sovereignty conflict: Hong Kong mandates ≥40% of reserves in HKD assets, clashing with Ant’s USD-pegged strategy;

• U.S. sanctions threat: Citing the 2023 e-CNY case, the U.S. Treasury may add Ant to the SDN list;

• EU data barriers: MiCA requires European user data to be stored locally, conflicting with Whale’s global infrastructure.

Technical Security Challenges

• Cross-chain bridge was hacked in 2024 with $32 million lost—requires MPC multi-signature upgrade;

• Zero-knowledge proof verification costs $0.22 per transaction—raising questions about viability for high-frequency, low-value use cases.

Strategic Roadmap: Multi-Currency Issuance and Central Bank Collaboration

Ant is adopting a three-pronged strategy to mitigate risks:

• Multi-currency stablecoin matrix: Concurrent issuance of HKDⓈ (HKD-pegged) and EURⓈ (EUR-pegged) to disperse regulatory pressure;

• CBDC integration: Participating in the Hong Kong e-HKD pilot with 10% of reserves allocated to digital HKD;

• Liquidity insurance mechanism: Partnering with Ping An Insurance to establish a $500 million redemption guarantee pool to prevent bank runs.

Success hinges on three key metrics: onboarding 500,000 merchants within 12 months (currently 2.5 million base), reaching $10 billion in stablecoin circulation by Q1 2026, and maintaining zero major regulatory penalties across the three jurisdictions. If achieved, Ant will become the first compliant stablecoin issuer spanning Hong Kong, Singapore, and the EU—driving infrastructure upgrades for RMB internationalization.