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Hong Kong is making a major move to become Asia’s premier gold hub. With the launch of a new gold clearing system (HKPMCC) and a new gold price benchmark (HAU), Prof. Yang Liu from HKU Business School highlights three core shifts taking shape in his interview with China Daily.

With the local banking system as its anchor, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences in April this year, raising expectations for banks’ participation in stablecoin issuance. Regulated banks could use this opportunity to improve payment and settlement efficiency, expand cross-border financial services, and further connect the digital-asset ecosystem with the real economy.

As the global shift toward digital currencies continues to mature, the stablecoin market is seeing a potentially significant new development. According to reports, more than 100 financial and technology institutions, including Visa and Stripe, have joined forces to form the Open Standard alliance, which is expected to launch the U.S. dollar stablecoin Open USD later this year.

Lack of comovement between consumption differentials and real exchange rates is a traditional indicator of a disconnect of foreign exchange markets from economic fundamentals. We present novel empirical evidence for the disconnect between the volatilities, as opposed to the levels, of these variables. The volatility correlations are below one, but they are larger than the level correlations. We discuss the economics of volatility disconnect anomaly in settings with complete and incomplete markets and provide an explanation of our empirical findings based on international risk sharing of expected growth and volatility news shocks.

In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and Anchorpoint Financial Limited (Anchorpoint). HSBC is one of Hong Kong’s largest banks and also holds the special status of a note-issuing bank.

In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint, signaling the imminent breakthrough of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) stablecoin issuance. This represents a significant milestone, marking the official launch of stablecoins as a critical on-chain financial infrastructure in Hong Kong.

Do real assets protect against inflation? Stocks’ core inflation betas are negative, while their energy betas are positive. Currencies, commodities, and real estate mostly hedge against energy inflation, but not core inflation. These hedging properties are reflected in the prices of inflation risks: only core inflation carries a negative risk premium, and its magnitude is consistent within and across asset classes, uniquely among macroeconomic risk factors. Energy inflation has become more procyclical and volatile since the 1990s, which helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns. A two-sector New Keynesian asset pricing model accounts for these facts quantitatively.

On August 1, 2025, Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Ordinance” will take effect, marking China’s gradual participation in the stablecoin market and its exploration of how to use Hong Kong, an offshore financial center, to promote the internationalization of the RMB through stablecoins. To answer this question, we need to understand, rationally and objectively, the development logic of offshore RMB stablecoins in the context of the current heightened market sentiment.