Mastercard and Standard Chartered complete first live test of Multi-Token Network
The proof-of-concept pilot involved tokenizing carbon credits and performing an atomic swap between the tokenized deposit and carbon credit.
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Mastercard and Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong (SCBHK) have successfully completed the first live test of Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN) within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.
The proof-of-concept pilot involved tokenizing carbon credits and performing an atomic swap between the tokenized deposit and carbon credit. According to Helena Chen, Mastercard’s managing director for HK & Macau, the project will “reshape how consumers and businesses connect, interact, and transact.”
The pilot project was initiated when a client of SCBHK’s virtual bank, Mox Bank, requested to purchase a carbon credit using deposited funds. Mox then requested SCBHK to tokenize the carbon credit through Libeara, a tokenization service provider launched by Standard Chartered’s venture arm, SC Ventures.
“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,” shares Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong.
Mastercard’s MTN facilitated the tokenization of the deposit, enabling the real-time swap across different blockchains. Mastercard launched the MTN on its private blockchain in June last year.
Prior to this live test, the network had undergone trial runs in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of Australia using wrapped central bank digital currency (CBDC) and the HKMA using its e-HKD CBDC, although neither of these CBDCs is currently live.
The HKMA has been actively promoting Hong Kong as a leading digital assets hub, reportedly pressuring local banks, including SCBHK, to improve their services for crypto exchanges. SCBHK is involved in several HKMA initiatives, such as Project Ensemble, the e-HKD pilot program, and the multinational Project mBridge.
In November, HSBC bank and China’s Ant Group also tested tokenized deposit transactions using Ant Group’s blockchain within an HKMA sandbox, while HSBC offers Bitcoin and Ethereum futures exchange-traded fund trading in Hong Kong.
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