Mastercard (MA.US) announced cooperation with HSBC and Bank of Ayudhya to participate in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Digital Currency E-Yuan" pilot program Phase 2. The three parties will jointly explore the possibility of supply chain financing using digital currencies such as Digital Currency E-Yuan and other tokenized bank deposits in different forms, supported by the Mastercard Multi-Token Network.

The Phase 2 of the pilot program is scheduled to be launched in March 2024, diving deeper into the experiments of Phase 1 to explore the commercial viability of digital currencies in the real world, and to evaluate various new types of digital currencies that may be available for public use. Mastercard welcomes the announcement by the HKMA to launch the "Digital Currency E-Yuan+" project based on the "Digital Currency E-Yuan" initiative, symbolizing significant progress in exploring innovative use cases for digital currencies, including Digital Currency E-Yuan and tokenized deposits.

In May 2023, Mastercard was selected by the HKMA to participate in the "Digital Currency E-Yuan" pilot program, and in November of the same year, demonstrated Mastercard's capability to process Web3 transactions involving decentralized applications and digital assets through a multi-token network solution.