Britain is positioning itself to become the first G7 nation to issue sovereign debt on the blockchain, appointing banking giant HSBC and law firm Ashurst to manage a digital gilt trial expected this year, according to the Financial Times.
The Treasury’s selection of the two firms aims to quell growing criticism that Britain has dragged its feet on tokenized government bonds. While Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled the pilot plan in late 2024, other jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, have already crossed the finish line with their own digital sovereign issues.
The pilot aims to reduce settlement time and operating costs for market participants. The experiment will run in the Bank of England’s “digital sandbox”, a controlled environment where financial innovations can operate under relaxed regulatory constraints.
HSBC has experience with digital debt offerings, having orchestrated over $3.5 billion in digital bond issues through its proprietary Orion blockchain — including Hong Kong’s $1.3 billion green bond last year, one of the largest tokenized debt sales globally.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong Finance Minister Paul Chan Mo-po said the multi-currency offering helped boost liquidity of the product.
“We will regularize the issuance of tokenized green bonds,” he said at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference, which could support further adoption.
