By Selena Li and Sneha Kumar
(Reuters) -The Hong Kong arm of China’s second-largest fund firm China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) rolled out on Thursday the world’s first renminbi-denominated tokenised money fund.
This is the first tokenised money market product giving exposure to renminbi-denominated assets, after rising demand for similar products based on U.S. dollar funds.
“Our tokenised products are designed to welcome the arrival of stablecoins, whether it is Hong Kong dollars, renminbi or U.S. dollar,” said Tian Gan, CEO of ChinaAMC HK at a press conference, referring to Hong Kong’s new stablecoin rules poised to take effect on August 1.
The firm aims to become among the first to offer yield-generating products catering to stablecoin users, Gan added.
Stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, and it is usually pegged to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar and is commonly used by crypto traders to move funds between tokens.
China’s tech giants are urging the central bank to allow the launch of stablecoins in Hong Kong pegged to its offshore yuan to help promote the global use of the Chinese currency and fend off the dollar’s growing digital influence, Reuters reported citing sources earlier this month.
Tokenisation turns traditional assets into digital tokens, enabling the creation of a digital central bank system that settles payments and securities trades faster and more cheaply by reducing manual checks.
ChinaAMC Hong Kong also launched a tokenised U.S. dollar money market fund, calling it the first such offering in Asia. The fund firm in February rolled out a similar product based on the Hong Kong dollar.
The Hong Kong unit expects demand for such funds to keep rising in the near future, as regulated on-chain money such as regulated stablecoins, tokenised deposits and central bank digital currencies become more widespread.
(Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore & Shri Navaratnam)
