Stablecoins Steal the Spotlight as CBDCs Fade at Hong Kong FinTech Week

Once hailed as the future of digital money, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) barely made an appearance this year, as attention shifted toward market-driven stablecoins. Hong Kong’s FinTech Week highlighted the trend, while Brazil’s pause on its Drex CBDC project underscored how even early adopters are reconsidering the model.

Six years after China launched the eCNY, CBDCs have lost momentum. At this year’s FinTech Week, banks, fintechs, and regulators focused on HKD-backed stablecoins and tokenized deposits rather than state-issued digital cash. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Drex pause offered a clear signal that central banks’ retail ambitions are slowing, leaving private issuers to build infrastructure once intended for CBDCs.

Many argue that CBDCs were born more out of fear than innovation. Facebook’s 2019 Libra project — a global digital currency backed by a basket of sovereign assets — spurred central banks into action, concerned that a private company could control major payment rails. But Libra’s eventual collapse left CBDCs chasing an unclear purpose, becoming slow, bureaucratic experiments that the agile stablecoin market is already surpassing.

According to the Atlantic Council, 137 countries and currency unions have some form of CBDC initiative, covering nearly all global GDP. Yet, only a handful — the Bahamas’ Sand Dollar, Jamaica’s Jam-Dex, and Nigeria’s eNaira — have fully launched, while the largest economies remain tied up in pilots, committees, and technical studies. Many central banks are still unsure if the public even wants the products they are building.

In contrast, the private sector is rapidly defining the future of money. “Pretty much all transactions will settle on blockchains eventually, and all money will be digital,” Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters noted at FinTech Week — immediately highlighting stablecoins as the dominant driver of this transformation.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin (BTC): Trading near $105,930, largely unchanged over 24 hours as the market consolidates after recent volatility and leveraged profit-taking.
• Ethereum (ETH): Slightly down at $3,578, as traders rotate into Bitcoin and unwind leveraged DeFi positions, though network activity and staking demand continue to provide support.
• Gold: Surged over 2% to around $4,085 an ounce, buoyed by soft U.S. economic data and optimism that the government shutdown deal could pave the way for a December Fed rate cut.
• Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific equities advanced, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up nearly 1%, tracking Wall Street’s rally amid renewed AI optimism and growing confidence that the U.S. government shutdown will soon end.

The takeaway is clear: while CBDCs linger in bureaucratic limbo, stablecoins are capturing the imagination — and investment — of banks, fintechs, and global markets alike.