Vincent Chok

Last week’s incident involving Binance was a reminder that security remains fundamental to building trust in digital assets. I spoke with The National News and Khaleej Times about how institutions view security risks and what incidents like this mean for confidence in the industry. One thing that stood out was how quickly the industry came together. Exchanges, stablecoin issuers and networks shared information and worked to limit the movement of affected funds. No financial system is without risk. What matters is how the industry responds when challenges arise. Read more: The National News: tinyurl.com/y4ccsv7k Khaleej Times: tinyurl.com/mwtwfj3k

We’re aware of the recent hack at @binance. FDUSD stolen in the attack has been frozen, and we’re monitoring the situation closely. Our priority is protecting FDUSD holders.

HSBC has launched RedCoin, its HKD stablecoin, on PayMe. More than 3.3 million users in Hong Kong can now use it to send money and pay at over 100,000 merchants. This is the right way to grow stablecoin use. People don’t need to download a new wallet or open an exchange account. They can use it in an app they already use every day. The more people use stablecoins like this, the more comfortable the wider market will get with them. I shared a few thoughts with CoinDesk on this: coindesk.com/business/2026/1…

A busy and productive week at @TOKEN2049, from First Digital’s business combination agreement signing to discussions on the future of stablecoins and digital payments. At @stblcnsummit, I joined @Hassan_NY, Alice Truong (@Nuvei), Jackie Zhang (Bridge) and Francesco Andreoli (@MetaMask) to discuss agentic payments and machine-to-machine settlement. Thank you to everyone who connected with us. Always good to be back in Singapore, with plenty more to build! 🇸🇬

We’re building stablecoin infrastructure, not just one stablecoin. FDUSD stays core, but the platform will work with other stablecoins too, for FX, settlement and agentic payments. On agents, stablecoins are the only thing an AI agent can actually settle with on its own today. Still very early days. And no, you shouldn’t put a million dollars in your agent wallet. Full interview: alphawire.xyz/news/stablecoi…

In 2019 I founded First Digital (@FirstDigitalHQ) as a trust and custody business. Today we announced a definitive business combination agreement with KOYN, and the post-combined company is expected to become a Nasdaq-listed company. We launched FDUSD (@FDLabsHQ) in 2023. It reached $1 billion in market capitalisation within four months and has recorded more than $4 trillion in cumulative trading volume. Now we are building Finance District, the infrastructure people and their AI agents will need as commerce becomes agentic. A listing would give us access to public capital markets to build it, and bring the reporting obligations of a listed company. A business built on holding assets for other people should be held to that standard. Grateful to the First Digital team and to everyone at KOYN. We expect to close in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Full announcement: 1stdigital.com/news-and-insi…

Joined Panel 2 at Institutional Privacy Day in Seoul, "Compliance-Ready Infrastructure for Regulated Capital", with @NewtonLabs and @zama. The big shift is from reactive to proactive compliance. Instead of checking transactions after the fact, the rules sit in the rails. Counterparties are verified before money moves, the settlement asset is fully reserved, and the record is there whenever a regulator asks. Privacy and compliance don't have to pull against each other. Good to discuss with teams building both sides of it.

Fee models, chargebacks and approval flows were all built for a person at the checkout. Agent-to-agent payments don't have one. Looking forward to getting into what replaces them at @stblcnsummit Singapore on 8 October.

Wrapping up a few days in Seoul. Spoke at the National Assembly on compliance-ready infrastructure for regulated capital, then went on to The Bridge Summit 2026, where it was good to see a lot of familiar faces. Korea is moving on stablecoin regulation, and the conversations this week were practical. Thanks to @Bridge34__ and everyone who hosted us.

Good to be back in Korea for The Bridge Summit 2026. Looking forward to a great discussion around stablecoins and digital assets.

A failed Senate vote doesn't slow Asia down. Hong Kong already has its Stablecoins Ordinance, Singapore has its own frameworks, both built without waiting on the US. The August recess came and went with no vote, and November's midterms are shrinking the window even more. That gap between the US and everyone else keeps growing the longer this drags on. Firms that planned around US clarity are now looking elsewhere. The US will get there eventually. The question is what gets built everywhere else while it waits. Thanks to The Defiant, Finance Magnates, and TechDay Asia for having me weigh in: Read the full articles here: The Defiant: thedefiant.io/news/regulatio… TechDay Asia: cfotech.asia/story/asia-eyes… Finance Magnates: financemagnates.com/cryptocu…

HSBC is preparing a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin for PayMe's 3.3 million users. That takes Hong Kong from a licensing framework to actual deployment. While some people assume an issuer like us should see that as a threat, I shared my views with @DisruptsMedia on why I don't see it that way. Banks have the advantage of trust, regulation, and large established user bases. Non-bank issuers can often move faster on innovation, developing new products and use cases as user needs evolve. I see these as complementary strengths rather than competing models. The harder question is what sits underneath. Hong Kong already has the rails. FPS handled 868 million transactions worth around US$1.1 trillion in 2025, instantly and at no cost to the user. The digital rails and public willingness to use them are both in place. The next step is making stablecoins the layer underneath rather than a standalone product. The value is what happens behind the screen: settlement that clears in seconds, treasury operations that do not stop over weekends, and reconciliation that no longer needs a whole finance team. Read the full article here: disrupts.disruptsmedia.com/f…

Most stablecoin conversations focus on the winners. Fewer focus on what it takes to keep going when the market turns. I joined @JameDiBiasio on The J.DB Report to talk about the last two years at First Digital, what it taught us, and why we rebuilt the business to prepare for a different market. The market has changed. Two years ago, there were a handful of serious stablecoin issuers. Today, there are dozens. That forces every issuer to answer a harder question: what are we actually useful for? Our answer is infrastructure. Serving Asian and emerging market users properly, building Finance District for agentic payments, and designing for security first, because in this business trust is the only thing that compounds. Listen to the full conversation here: jdibiasio.com/p/vincent-chok

Every part of the financial system we use today was designed on the assumption that a person is present to authenticate, approve and intervene. An AI agent is not that person, and AI agents are already reaching the point of payment. The technology is moving faster than confidence in it. People becoming comfortable letting an AI agent move their money will take clearer explanation and evidence that these systems are safe. Full piece in @TheAIJournal1 aijourn.com/ai-is-changing-w…

An important step for $FDUSD. FDUSD/USD, our first direct fiat market, is now live on @HashKeyExchange alongside BTC/FDUSD and ETH/FDUSD. This expands direct access to FDUSD and its use across major digital asset markets.

Justin Sun is back with the same claims we have answered many times, and a few new ones. He says Binance delisted FDUSD. It did not. A few low-volume altcoin pairs were trimmed, as happens on every exchange. Dozens still trade today. He points to a drop in FDUSD. It came hours after his own targeted attack, and the peg was back the same day. FDUSD has honoured every redemption request on schedule, without exception. Every dollar sits in attested reserves, and we publish the holdings each month. Sixteen months on, still nothing. His story keeps shifting, but ours has not. This belongs in court, and we know what our records show.

Great to see the @FD_XYZ team building. Agents that can buy are only half the transaction. Stores need to be able to receive them.

Great conversation with @DadsGoneCrypto on where stablecoins actually sit in 2026. We got into why institutions are moving faster than retail, agents that can pay on their own, and what still has to catch up before any of that scales. Full conversation on YouTube ↓ youtu.be/aI0Na6V3vBc

When the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin sells, the market reads it as a signal, but I'd take that with a pinch of salt. To me, Strategy's sale looks more like a tactical move to satisfy credit rating agencies than a fundamental loss of conviction in Bitcoin. There's a difference between raising cash and walking away. Bitcoin is down close to 30% this year, but the long-term outlook remains strong. Many investors in Southeast Asia are already treating this dip as an entry point rather than a reason to step away. Read the full @BusinessTimes article here ↓ businesstimes.com.sg/wealth/…