Standard Chartered vs Revolut: Two Bank Stablecoins Two Different Strategies
- Tokenization Insight
- Aug 26
- 2 min read
Standard Chartered became the first bank to distribute HKDAP, the HKD stablecoin issued by Anchorpoint, a SC JV, in Hong Kong.
Its priority is to help eligible institutional clients and partners integrate HKDAP into their business activities by using stablecoin as an additional rail to make real-economy transactions and operations more efficient and cost-effective.
Two days later, Revolut announced a euro stablecoin that will initially be available to eligible customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, before expanding across the European Economic Area later this year.
➡️ Compare two bank stablecoin strategies
The headlines look similar. The commercial playbooks do not.
“Revolut initially eliminated hidden fees and friction in currency exchange,” said Iman Olya, Revolut’s Product Owner of Stablecoin. “Now we are doing the exact same thing for crypto.”
That statement reveals the strategy.
Revolut built its business by entering FX with extremely low pricing, compressing incumbent margins and using the product to attract retail customers. It then monetised those relationships through higher-value financial services.
It is likely to apply the same playbook to stablecoins.
Rather than treating the stablecoin itself as a high-margin product, Revolut can launch at little or no margin, undercut competing products and use it as a customer-acquisition and engagement tool.
The commercial value comes from the broader relationship not necessarily the stablecoin transaction. After all, the actual revenue from stablecoin payment business made up only 2% of the 2025 crypto sector revenue.
Standard Chartered, by contrast, is pursuing a B2B infrastructure strategy.
Its focus is helping businesses reduce transaction costs and improve operational efficiency by embedding stablecoin rails within a familiar institutional banking experience.
💡 Which model has the stronger commercial case and what does each mean for banks, fintechs and standalone stablecoin issuers? I’ll examine both approaches in an upcoming Strategic Edge note.
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