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 steer 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 the U.K. has been dragging 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 issuances.
The pilot aims to slash settlement time and operational costs for market participants. The experiment will run within the Bank of England’s “digital sandbox,” a controlled environment where financial innovations can operate under relaxed regulatory constraints.
HSBC has experience in digital debt offerings, having orchestrated over $3.5 billion in digital bond issuances 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 Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the multicurrency offering helped boost liquidity on 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.