June 12 (Reuters) - Ant Group, an affiliate

of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ), plans to apply

for a license to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong through its

overseas arm Ant International, the subsidiary said in a

statement on Thursday.

Last month, Hong Kong's legislature passed a stablecoin bill

that establishes a licensing regime for fiat-referenced

stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong.

Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a

constant value, usually pegged to a fiat currency such as the

U.S. dollar, are commonly used by crypto traders to move funds

between tokens.

"We plan to apply for the fiat-referenced stablecoins (FRS)

issuer's license once the process is open after the Stablecoins

Ordinance takes effect on August 1," Ant International said in a

statement.

The move was first reported by Bloomberg News, which also

said Ant would seek to apply for a stablecoin licenses in

Singapore and Luxembourg as well.

Ant was founded by billionaire Jack Ma and is 33% controlled

by Alibaba ( BABA ). It operates China's ubiquitous mobile payments app

Alipay.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)