Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
First Digital USD (FDUSD): A Dollar Stablecoin Issued from Hong Kong
A dollar-pegged coin said to be backed 1:1 by cash assets
FDUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by an affiliate of Hong Kong’s First Digital group, designed to stay worth one US dollar. It launched in 2023 and is used as a trading currency on exchanges such as Binance.
1. A dollar coin from Hong Kong’s First Digital
FDUSD is issued by First Digital Labs, an affiliate of the Hong Kong-based First Digital group. It is a stablecoin (a coin designed to hold the value of a currency such as the dollar) meant to be exchangeable for one dollar. The issuer says it is backed 1:1 by cash and cash equivalents held separately by First Digital Trust, a Hong Kong trust company.
FDUSD is issued on several blockchains, including Ethereum and BNB Chain, and on Ethereum it is an ERC-20 token (Ethereum’s standard token format). On the Crypto Nation map, FDUSD stands in Ethereum City (the capital), because it was first issued on Ethereum.
2. How the one-dollar value is kept
A stablecoin holds reserves from the dollars it receives and issues the same amount of coins; FDUSD says it follows this principle. The price stays near one dollar only if coins can be redeemed for a dollar, and direct issuance and redemption is usually open to approved institutions while ordinary users trade on exchanges.
The issuer says it publishes regular reserve reports. Such an attestation (an outside accountant’s check) confirms one point in time and does not guarantee what follows. A stablecoin’s safety therefore depends less on technology than on its reserves and trust in the issuer and custodian.
3. Uses and key dates
FDUSD serves as a dollar stand-in for trading other coins. Large exchanges such as Binance opened FDUSD trading pairs and for a time offered fee breaks, helping it spread as a base currency, and it appears in DeFi (decentralized finance) services on Ethereum and BNB Chain as a trading counterpart or collateral.
Key dates: First Digital Labs launched FDUSD in 2023. In April 2025, after doubts about the trust company holding the reserves were raised publicly, FDUSD briefly fell well below one dollar before recovering, and the issuer said its reserves were sufficient. Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance took effect on 1 August 2025, requiring a licence to issue fiat-referenced stablecoins.
4. Things to know
A stablecoin’s value rests on its reserves and on trust in the issuer. FDUSD’s issuer and the trust company holding its reserves belong to the same group, so independence and transparency are always checked, and April 2025 showed that doubts about a custodian alone can shake the price. Periodic reports cover one moment and do not guarantee real-time status.
Regulation is a variable too. Hong Kong’s ordinance restricts issuing fiat-referenced stablecoins in Hong Kong, or marketing them to its public, without a licence, so the issuer’s licensing status and each country’s rules should be checked in official sources. Dollar stablecoins can also be affected by outside factors such as sanctions, and exchanges may change or remove trading pairs.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.