Bitspark launches Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) stablecoin 

Bitspark, a cryptocurrency money transfer platform, has launched Sparkdex.HKD – the first market-ready cryptocurrency pegged to the Hong Kong Dollar (HKD).

“Until now, US Dollar stablecoins have dominated the market but there are other national currencies in the world, like the Hong Kong Dollar. We are proud to have pioneered this landmark first for both the cryptocurrency and traditional finance industry, and anticipate that this will lead the way for much-needed diversity among other currencies within the stablecoin sector,” said George Harrap, Co-Founder, and CEO of Bitspark.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are backed by and pegged to the price of existing real-world assets. Sparkdex.HKD is tied to Bitspark’s reserves of physical cash in HKD. This will be regularly audited by a local audit firm in a quarterly report for the public.

Currently, there are no other stablecoin solutions for HKD with similar measures to ensure transparency.

Sparkdex.HKD began listing on Sparkdex, Bitspark’s decentralized exchange (DEX), and Bitshares connected DEX, on 31 October, 2018 and their market capitalization after one month of trading reached approximately $500,000 HKD.

The stablecoin is marketplace agnostic and can be integrated into other exchanges as well.

“Bitspark was founded in Hong Kong, a front runner for innovation in finance. We see the launch of Sparkdex.HKD as a clear opportunity for Bitspark to bring the benefits of this technology to Asia. We’re planning to also launch a further 179+ stablecoins to service the company’s money transfer markets starting initially with emerging and frontier markets.” said Maxine Ryan, Co-Founder, and COO of Bitspark.

Hong Kong’s regulatory environment is innovation-friendly and is open to projects leveraging on blockchain technology to experiment before putting in specific regulatory guidance.