Standard Chartered CEO: All Money Will Be Digital, and Every Transaction Will Settle on Blockchain
Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters predicted that the world’s financial system is heading toward a future where every transaction is settled on blockchain networks and all forms of money become digital.
Speaking during a panel at Hong Kong FinTech Week, Winters said the coming shift represents a “fundamental restructuring of the global financial system.” He noted, however, that the path toward that transformation remains uncertain. “We don’t yet know exactly how this will happen,” Winters said, urging the financial industry to keep experimenting and adapting to the rapid evolution of blockchain technologies.
Industry Leaders See Inevitable Tokenization
Winters shared the stage with HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery, who expressed confidence in Hong Kong’s role as a driving force in financial technology. Winters praised the city’s regulators for their progressive digital asset frameworks and openness to innovation.
His remarks echo a growing consensus among top financial executives. Leaders from BlackRock and Robinhood have recently made similar forecasts, predicting that tokenized assets and blockchain-based settlements will underpin much of global finance in the coming decade.
Standard Chartered Expands Its Blockchain Footprint
Standard Chartered has been actively advancing its blockchain and digital asset strategy. In February 2025, the bank formed a joint venture with Animoca Brands and HKT to seek a license for issuing an HKD-backed stablecoin, combining the bank’s financial expertise with Animoca’s Web3 know-how and HKT’s mobile payment infrastructure.
The partnership is part of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s stablecoin sandbox, launched in July 2024, which allows approved institutions to test real-world stablecoin applications under regulatory supervision.
Competition in this space is heating up, with multiple banks and fintech firms racing to establish stablecoin-based payment settlement networks, a development some analysts are calling a “stablecoin infrastructure war.”
Institutional Trading and Custody Services
Beyond stablecoins, Standard Chartered launched institutional Bitcoin and Ether spot trading in July 2025 through its UK branch, offering direct access to BTC/USD and ETH/USD pairs. The service builds on the bank’s broader push into digital assets, which includes a crypto custody partnership with OKX in Europe designed for institutional clients.
Hong Kong’s government has taken an active role in fostering blockchain innovation, introducing regulatory sandboxes, licensing regimes, and pilot programs aimed at attracting global investment.
With Hong Kong FinTech Week running Nov. 3, the city is once again in the spotlight as an advocate for the convergence of traditional finance, Web3 technologies, and digital assets, a future that Winters believes will ultimately reshape the way money moves around the world.
