On July 24, according to Cailianshe, JD.com CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong) will issue a cryptocurrency stablecoin in Hong Kong that is anchored 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar.
JD CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong) is a subsidiary of JD Technology Group and the only potential stablecoin issuer under JD. According to the official website, JD Stablecoin is a stablecoin based on a public chain and pegged to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) at a 1:1 ratio, which will be issued on a public blockchain.
Each JD Stablecoin can be redeemed at a ratio of 1:1. Its reserves are composed of highly liquid and reliable assets, which are safely stored in independent accounts of licensed financial institutions. The integrity of the reserves is strictly verified through regular disclosure and audit reports. In terms of supervision, JD Stablecoin will actively cooperate with global regulators and comply with existing and evolving legal and regulatory standards.
Claiming to be the “Co-founder of WeChat Pay”, who is the CEO of Coinlink?
Liu Teddy, CEO of JD CoinChain Technology, labeled himself as co-founder of WeChat Pay on his LinkedIn profile, but people familiar with the matter told BlockBeats that there is no such thing as co-founder of WeChat Pay, and he may be the product manager or head of a business of WeChat Pay.
According to LinkedIn, Liu Teddy is also the vice president of JD Technology. He graduated from Beijing University of Technology with a degree in computer science and technology in 2006 and is currently a PhD student in financial technology at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
From 2010 to 2018, Liu Teddy, as the co-founder and product director of WeChat Pay, created the WeChat Pay product from scratch. On this basis, as a core product personnel, he created the phenomenal product WeChat Red Packet. In terms of the WeChat Pay+ business model, he is responsible for the operation of more than 15 industries related to catering, cultural tourism, transportation, logistics, retail, education, etc., such as the catering industry solution of scanning code to order food.
Since 2018, Liu Teddy has served as the head of global mobile payment product operations and director of the converged operations department at Huawei, responsible for global financial solutions. He has completed the expansion, research and development, and implementation of mobile financial products in 19 countries and regions overseas, with products serving over 600 million people, including Kenyas M-Pesa, Bangladeshs B-Kash, Indonesias T-Cash, Thailands K Bank, East Africas largest bank KCB, Ghanas GCB, Pakistans JAZZCASH, Myanmars KBZ Bank, etc. As the co-founder of Myanmars KBZPay, he has pushed KBZPay from scratch to become Myanmars largest payment brand.
In May 2022, Liu Teddy served as Vice President of JD Logistics Group and Head of Logistics Technology Product RD. Since 2023, he has served as Vice President of JD Technology, responsible for overseas financial technology business. Since March 2024, he has served as CEO of JINGDONG Coinlink Technology Hong Kong Limited.
JD.com picks up blockchain again
This is not the first time JD.com has been involved in blockchain business.
In May 2016, JD Finance joined the Financial Blockchain Cooperation Alliance. Although JD entered the blockchain field later than other Internet companies, its development momentum is not much behind, and it has placed its focus on the alliance chain.
In May 2017, JD Finance cooperated with UnionPay to build the alliance chain Zhizhen Chain. In the same month, Wanda and China Merchants Bank joined JDs alliance chain. In 2018, JD Finance improved the underlying blockchain technology of the ABS cloud platform and established an alliance chain that was independently deployed by multiple parties. Each party first deployed it separately in an independent environment and then realized networking. At the same time, it also established a business bottom layer that supports various types of assets.
At that time, JD.com, as the retailer with the highest sales in China, established the JD.com Quality Traceability and Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance in June 2017 with the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Quality Inspection Headquarters, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, etc., and cooperated to build a blockchain traceability platform; in December of the same year, JD.com established Chinas first safe food blockchain traceability alliance; in August 2018, JD.coms blockchain anti-counterfeiting and traceability platform BaaS was officially released, and the first edition of the JD.com Blockchain Technology Practice White Paper was released in the same year.
In addition to the alliance chain, JD.com has also developed an NFT platform Lingxi, which was officially launched at the end of 2021 and provided technical support by Zhizhen Chain. It was initially launched on the JD.com APP applet, and the first batch of NFTs on sale were designed based on the JD.com mascot Joy.
Lingxi main page in JD.com mini program, image source: Jiemian News
Among the domestic technology giants that were deploying NFTs at the time, Lingxi formed a three-legged tripod with Jingtan under Ant and Huanhe under Tencent. However, Zhizhen Chain and Lingxi have long faded from the public eye.
On July 18, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the list of participants in the Sandbox for stablecoin issuers, including JD CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong). Currently, JD CoinChain Technology has obtained Type 1 (Securities Trading), Type 4 (Providing Advice on Securities) and Type 9 (Asset Management) licenses from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
The Sandbox was launched in March this year as part of the HKMAs efforts to promote the sustainable and responsible development of the stablecoin ecosystem in Hong Kong. Through the Sandbox, the HKMA allows institutions that intend to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong to test their operational plans and conduct two-way communication on the proposed regulatory requirements in order to develop a fit-for-purpose and risk-based regulatory regime.
JD CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong) The issuance of stablecoins marks the first entry of JD Technology Group into the cryptocurrency market. The announcement of the issuance of stablecoins at a time when JD is vigorously developing stablecoins in Hong Kong shows that JD is still actively exploring the development direction of the blockchain field.
However, due to the influence of many factors such as regulation, the development of JD.coms stablecoin business may not be smooth sailing. However, this step taken by JD.com may stimulate other technology companies to resume their blockchain business to a certain extent, thereby bringing more positive signals to the encryption industry.
