The United Kingdom’s (U.K.) government has hired HSBC bank (HSBC) to manage its upcoming blockchain bond sale.
The U.K. is aiming to become the first G7 nation to issue sovereign debt on the blockchain, appointing HSBC to manage a digital gilt trial.
The British Treasury aims to test demand for tokenized government bonds but has stopped short of saying that digital debt sales will become a regular occurrence for the U.K. government.
Other jurisdictions such as Hong Kong have already issued digital sovereign debt.
The U.K. pilot aims to slash settlement time and operational costs for market participants. The experiment will be overseen by the Bank of England.
HSBC was hired to assist as it has experience in digital debt offerings, having orchestrated over $3.5 billion U.S. in digital bond issuances through its proprietary Orion blockchain.
HSBC, which is headquartered in London, England, managed Hong Kong's $1.3 billion U.S. green bond sale last year, one of the largest tokenized debt sales to date.
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary has said that the city plans to issue more blockchain bonds to help finance municipal projects.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is currently trading at $67,700 U.S.
