Standard Chartered launches 24/7 tokenized deposits in Hong Kong

The significance lies less in tokenization itself than in a global bank running deposit tokens continuously, which tests whether regulated bank money can function outside banking hours. The live participants — an asset manager, a fintech platform and a trading venue — suggest the early use case is settlement and cash management around fund and trading activity, not retail payments. The open question is whether other banks follow with interoperable deposit tokens or keep issuance walled off, since the value of continuous settlement depends on counterparties being reachable at the same hours.