[Global On-Chain Projects File.008] Project Ensemble / EnsembleTX

Why did Hong Kong move toward real-value transactions with tokenized deposits?

Hong Kong's phased implementation connecting assets, bank deposits, and central bank money

Last updated: August 2026

Many of the projects covered so far, such as Project Guardian, Project Agorá, and Pontes/Appia, were projects verifying the future landscape of financial markets and their feasibility.

Hong Kong's Project Ensemble also began as an experiment in a sandbox.

However, in November 2025, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) transitioned Project Ensemble to EnsembleTX.

"TX" stands for Transaction.

It is a controlled pilot that uses Hong Kong dollar-denominated tokenized deposits with actual value, rather than experimental tokens, to settle tokenized assets.

Participating banks and market operators are now able to use tokenized deposits to settle financial assets such as tokenized MMFs via Delivery versus Payment (DvP).

Project Ensemble is attempting to answer the following question:

Furthermore, beyond that, there is the question:

that question exists.

EnsembleTX shows that Hong Kong has moved from the stage of "is tokenization technically possible?" to the stage of "using actual customer funds to identify problems that hinder commercialization."

Project Card

Official Name
Project Ensemble / EnsembleTX

Organizer
Hong Kong Monetary Authority: HKMA

Start Date

• Project Ensemble: March 2024

• Ensemble Sandbox: August 2024

• EnsembleTX: November 2025

Target Assets

• Tokenized MMFs

• Bonds and bond-like products

• Green and sustainable assets

• Trade and supply chain finance assets

• Other tokenized financial assets and real-world assets

Settlement Assets

• HKD-denominated tokenized deposits

• Tokenized central bank money in the future

Current Stage
Controlled pilot conducting real-value transactions

Initial Use Cases

• Settlement of tokenized MMFs

• Real-time liquidity management

• Corporate treasury and cash management

Banks providing tokenized deposits

• Bank of China (Hong Kong)

• China Construction Bank (Asia)

• Fubon Bank (Hong Kong)

• Fusion Bank

• Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong)

• Bank of East Asia

• HSBC

These seven banks have been announced as participants in providing tokenized deposits to customers in Hong Kong and engaging in real-value settlement for interbank transactions via EnsembleTX.

What is Project Ensemble trying to solve?

Tokenization of financial assets is no longer technically unusual.

It is possible to issue bonds, funds, accounts receivable, and real estate interests as tokens on DLT.

However, simply tokenizing assets does not complete the market.

For example, when purchasing a tokenized MMF, the following processes are required:

1. The investor applies for the purchase

2. Identity verification and investment eligibility are confirmed

3. The purchase price is paid

4. The MMF tokens are transferred to the investor

5. The fund's record of rights holders is updated

6. The transaction is reflected in the ledgers of the bank, asset manager, and custodian

processing is necessary.

If only the asset side is on DLT and the funds side is a traditional bank transfer, the assets and funds move across different systems and time zones.

As a result,

• you may pay the funds but fail to receive the assets

• Unable to receive funds despite having transferred assets

• Need to reconcile assets and funds

• Processing stops during nights and holidays

• Discrepancies arise between multiple ledgers

These problems remain.

The goal of Project Ensemble is to connect tokenized assets with tokenized bank money, creating a market infrastructure where assets and funds can be processed under the same transaction conditions.

In its 2024 Sandbox, the HKMA verified four areas: fixed-income products and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, and trade and supply chain finance.

From Sandbox to EnsembleTX

Project Ensemble is being advanced in two stages.

Stage 1 | Ensemble Sandbox

In the Sandbox, end-to-end processing of asset transactions was verified using experimental tokenized deposits.

The main objectives were to confirm:

• Whether tokenized assets can be issued

• Whether they can connect with bank tokenized deposits

• Whether DvP can be executed

• Whether data can be linked between different platforms

• What the legal, regulatory, and accounting challenges are

• Whether common technical standards can be created

at this stage.

This stage focused primarily on confirming technical feasibility.

Phase 2 | EnsembleTX

EnsembleTX uses actual bank deposits and digital assets, rather than experimental assets.

Using real value reveals issues that were difficult to see during the PoC.

• Who manages customer assets?

• At what point do deposit claims arise or extinguish?

• Can erroneous transactions be reversed?

• Who bears the loss in the event of a failure?

• Which ledger should the transaction be recorded in?

• Who is responsible for 24-hour operation and monitoring?

• How should reports be made to regulatory authorities?

• Can costs be recovered as a commercial service?

EnsembleTX is not a place for repeated technical demonstrations, but a place to verify legal, regulatory, operational, technical, and business issues that hinder commercialization through actual transactions.

How are tokenized deposits used?

Tokenized deposits are different from stablecoins.

They are deposit liabilities that a bank owes to its customers, made available on DLT.

In principle, the holder has a deposit claim against the issuing bank.

Just like regular deposits,

• Issuing bank

• Customer account

• Identity verification

• AML/CFT

• Balance

• Issuance/Redemption

• Freezing/Cancellation

are managed by banks.

The difference is that deposits can be operated via programs.

For example,

• Pay only when MMF tokens are transferred

• Transfer only to designated parties

• Lock funds until conditions are met

• Automatically redeem at maturity

• Replenish when a company's balance falls below a certain level

can be incorporated into such processes.

However, tokenized deposits from different banks are claims against different banks, even if they are denominated in the same Hong Kong Dollar.

One Hong Kong Dollar at HSBC and one Hong Kong Dollar at Standard Chartered have the same face value, but the legal obligor is different.

Therefore, to make payments between customers of different banks, it is necessary not only to transfer tokens but also to perform interbank settlement.

Current architecture of EnsembleTX

The initial configuration of EnsembleTX does not involve putting everything onto a new common ledger.

The main components are:

• Tokenized deposit infrastructure of each bank

• Tokenized asset infrastructure for each market participant

• Ensemble Interoperability Layer

• Hong Kong's existing RTGS

.

Each bank manages its own deposits

Deposits are the liabilities of each bank.

Therefore, each bank is responsible for its own tokenized deposits regarding

• issuance

• transfer

• redemption

• customer management

• balance management

• key and authorization management

.

Asset infrastructure is not unified into one

Tokenized MMFs, bonds, trade assets, etc., may be issued on different platforms.

Ensemble adopts a structure that connects multiple infrastructures rather than gathering all assets onto a single designated chain.

The Interoperability Layer synchronizes states

The Ensemble Interoperability Layer connects different asset infrastructures with bank deposit infrastructures to synchronize the transaction states of assets and funds.

What is important here is that interoperability is not merely message transfer.

• Assets are locked

• Funds are secured

• Compliance checks are complete

• Transaction can be executed

• Transaction is finalized

• Failed and lock released

It is necessary to synchronize states such as these across multiple platforms.

Utilizing existing RTGS for interbank settlement

When the buyer and seller use different banks, final interbank HKD settlement is required.

In the initial configuration of EnsembleTX, the existing HKD RTGS is used for interbank settlement.

This is a realistic configuration that uses proven existing infrastructure as a settlement anchor rather than immediately moving central bank money onto DLT.

Transaction to purchase tokenized MMF

The conceptual transaction flow can be organized as follows:

Step 1 | Investor purchases MMF

A customer of Bank A purchases a tokenized MMF from an asset management company.

The bank and the asset management company verify:

• Customer identity

• Investment eligibility

• Sanctions/AML

• Purchase amount

• Product terms

Confirm the.

Step 2 | Secure funds

Bank A locks the customer's deposit or issues corresponding tokenized deposits.

This prevents the same funds from being used for another transaction.

Step 3 | Lock MMF tokens

The management company or asset platform secures the MMF tokens to be transferred to the investor.

Step 4 | Synchronize transaction terms

Through the Interoperability Layer,

• funds have been secured

• MMF tokens have been secured

• participant verification is complete

synchronize these states.

Step 5 | Execute interbank settlement

If the management company's bank is different from Bank A, interbank settlement using central bank money is performed via existing RTGS.

Step 6 | Finalize DvP

Only when the fund settlement is completed are the MMF tokens transferred to the investor.

If the fund settlement fails, the locks on the MMF tokens and deposits are released.

The actual detailed smart contracts, state models, and timeout processing of EnsembleTX cannot be confirmed from public documents alone.

This flow is a conceptual organization based on the published architecture.

Why is the MMF the first target?

Tokenized MMFs are highly practical assets in on-chain finance.

Corporations and financial institutions can invest surplus funds that do not need to be held as deposits in short-term MMFs.

However, traditional MMFs have time lags involving:

• application times

• cut-off times

• net asset value calculation

• settlement dates

• redemption times

• deposits into bank accounts

as mentioned above.

If MMFs are tokenized and can be exchanged for deposits instantly, it becomes possible to:

• automatically manage surplus funds

• automatically redeem funds when needed

• use them as collateral

• transfer funds during nights and holidays

• earn yields until just before settlement

and other such uses.

MMFs become not just investment products, but liquidity management tools that bridge the gap between deposits and marketable assets.

The HKMA has explicitly identified the settlement of tokenized MMFs and real-time liquidity and treasury management as the initial focus of EnsembleTX.

From Digital Twin to Digital Native

Many current tokenized assets are of the Digital Twin type.

Apart from the token, there exist traditional registers of rights holders and ledgers.

For example, even if an MMF token is transferred, the official transfer of rights may not be completed unless the off-chain records of the management company or registrar are also updated.

In this configuration, even if processing can be automated through tokenization, the reconciliation between DLT and existing ledgers remains.

The future vision aimed for by the HKMA is the Digital Native type.

This is a structure where the token itself becomes the original record of rights, and its transfer changes the legal ownership record.

By becoming Digital Native,

• dual ledgers

• reconciliation with off-chain registers

• time lags in rights transfers

• manual updates

can be reduced.

However, this cannot be achieved through technology alone.

It is necessary to grant legal authenticity to records on DLT through securities law, trust law, fund regulations, custody, and insolvency law.

The HKMA itself also clarifies that the initial configuration of EnsembleTX is a realistic first step toward practical application, and that the Digital Native type is the future destination.

The next stage is central bank money

In the current EnsembleTX, existing RTGS is used for interbank settlement.

However, even if the asset base and tokenized deposits operate 24/7, if interbank settlement is constrained by RTGS operating hours, it will not become a fully 24-hour market.

Therefore, as the next stage, the HKMA is

If realized,

this would allow

• bank tokenized deposits,

• tokenized MMFs and bonds,

• and central bank money

to be synchronized within a DLT environment.

If interbank settlements can operate 24 hours a day, the trading hours and settlement times of on-chain asset markets can be aligned.

The HKMA plans to gradually expand the EnsembleTX environment, moving toward a 24/7 configuration where tokenized deposits are settled with CBDCs.

Differences from GBTD

The UK's GBTD also synchronizes tokenized deposits from multiple banks with external assets and contractual conditions.

However, the focus differs.

GBTD

• online purchases,

• mortgages,

• digital bonds,

• payments including consumer and corporate,

• synchronization with fraud prevention and contract fulfillment

EnsembleTX

• MMFs and financial assets

• Institutional Investors & Corporate Treasury

• Liquidity Management

• Capital Market DvP

• Future Central Bank Money Settlement

While GBTD expands bank deposits to conditional settlement for daily transactions, EnsembleTX focuses on financial markets and corporate treasury to advance the use of real-world assets.

What Project Ensemble has demonstrated

The significance of Project Ensemble lies not only in the fact that Hong Kong issued tokenized deposits.

What is important is that

is that.

The initial configuration of EnsembleTX is not a fully on-chain financial market.

Existing RTGS, off-chain ledgers, and digital twin assets still remain.

However, instead of waiting for a completed, ideal infrastructure, they chose a phased transition of:

• placing an interoperability layer

• utilizing existing central bank settlement

• starting real-value transactions on a limited basis

• reflecting issues identified during operation into the next design

They chose this phased transition.

The answer to the question in the title is as follows:

Next Episode Preview

Next time, we will cover Project mBridge.

While Project Ensemble connects tokenized assets and bank deposits in Hong Kong, mBridge facilitates the exchange of multiple central bank digital currencies on a single platform.