Hong Kong: HashKey Lists SBI’s Tokenised Japan Equity Fund, Paid Only in USDC
Professional investors in Hong Kong can now buy a token that tracks a fund of Japanese dividend-paying shares, paying for it in a US dollar stablecoin rather than through a broker. HashKey Exchange, one of Hong Kong’s licensed crypto platforms, has added JX, a token linked to a fund run by Japan’s SBI Group, to its HashKey Earn service.
Key facts
- What it is: JX is a token linked to the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Fund, managed by SBI Asset Management. It is issued by DigiFT, a Singapore-based platform for tokenised real-world assets.
- Who can buy: Only eligible professional investors on HashKey Earn. Residents of mainland China and the United States are excluded.
- How it is paid for: Subscriptions and redemptions are settled only in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, with a minimum subscription of 5,000 USDC.
- Terms: Orders settle in five business days (T+5). Redemptions carry a 0.1% platform fee, and the token cannot be traded on a secondary market or moved to outside wallets through this channel.
- Second market: JX first launched on 15 July 2026 for qualified investors on DigiFT in Singapore. Hong Kong is its second distribution channel.
How a tokenised fund works
A tokenised fund is an ordinary investment fund whose units are also recorded as digital tokens on a blockchain, a shared digital ledger. The fund itself still holds real assets, in this case Japanese listed shares picked for their dividends, earnings, financial strength and valuations. The token is a digital receipt for a share of that fund.
The practical change is in the plumbing. Instead of sending yen or dollars through banks and a fund distributor, an investor on HashKey Earn pays in USDC and receives JX. When they want out, they redeem JX and get USDC back. Settlement still takes T+5, so this is not instant trading. What it offers is a new route in for investors who already hold digital dollars on a licensed platform.
The JX channel is also deliberately narrow. HashKey only handles subscriptions and redemptions, with no buying and selling between users, and the token cannot leave the platform through this channel. That keeps the product inside the controls of a regulated exchange rather than on the open crypto market.
Why it matters
For Hong Kong, the listing adds a real-world, non-crypto investment to the city’s licensed digital asset platforms. Hong Kong regulators have spent the past few years building rules for exchanges, stablecoins and tokenised products, and they have been encouraging products like this that connect traditional finance with blockchain settlement.
For Japan’s SBI Group, the move is part of a wider plan. According to the announcement, SBI wants to place Japanese investment products on several digital platforms to reach more overseas investors and grow its assets under management. It has also said it may tokenise more equities, bonds and money market funds, and link them to yen and US dollar stablecoins. SBI describes the goal as a “Japan-originated on-chain capital market”.
For the region, the deal shows how tokenisation is turning into a cross-border chain: a Japanese fund manager, a Singapore token issuer and a Hong Kong exchange, all linked by a dollar stablecoin used as the payment rail. Stablecoins are increasingly used to move money in and out of tokenised assets, which is why regulators across Asia are paying close attention to how they are issued and backed.
What to watch
- Whether SBI and DigiFT add a yen stablecoin as a payment option alongside USDC, as they have signalled.
- More Japanese bond or money market funds being tokenised and listed on Hong Kong or Singapore platforms.
- Whether secondary trading or wallet transfers are allowed later, which would make the tokens more useful but bring more regulatory questions.
Related on FinDeskAsia: Ant International settles tokenised deposits across three Hong Kong banks and Hong Kong’s FPS link with UnionPay.
Sources: Fintech News Hong Kong (November 2026); TokenPost (November 2026); DeFi Prime (November 2026); crypto.news (July 2026).
