Hong Kong Plans Wholesale CBDC Launch for Interbank Settlement by Year-End

Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency for interbank settlement by the end of this year as part of Project EnsembleTX, according to Ledger Insights. According to ChainCatcher, the wCBDC is intended to support 24-hour settlement of tokenized deposit transactions. The project entered a real-transaction pilot phase in late 2025, but cross-bank settlement still relies on the RTGS system, which operates only during business hours. The wCBDC is meant to address that limitation. It is also planned for settlement of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing off-hours derivatives trades, with related real-fund transactions also targeted for implementation this year.