Ant Group, the Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant behind Alipay, has filed a trademark application for Antcoin in Hong Kong, suggesting possible plans to expand into blockchain-based financial services and stablecoins.
The June filing, which comes just days before Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing is scheduled to speak at next week’s Hong Kong Fintech Week alongside Hong Kong’s Secretary of Financial Services Christopher Hui and Primavera Capital’s Fred Hu, has attracted significant attention on crypto social media, with a crypto-heavy agenda for an event that is typically TradeFi-focused.
The specification of Antcoin’s filings spans almost all major financial activities, from traditional banking, lending and FX to blockchain-based settlement, stablecoin issuance, digital-asset custody and loyalty rewards, effectively establishing it as a bridge between Ant’s payments ecosystem and Hong Kong’s regulated Web3 economy.
The move follows Ant’s earlier statement that it was exploring Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime, which came into effect in August.
Ant Group did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.