Global financial giant HSBC (NASDAQ: HSBC) has announced the launch of tokenized gold in Hong Kong, which will be available to retail customers for the first time.
HSBC Gold Tokens can be used across the bank’s online banking platforms and mobile apps. This follows the bank’s move last November to announce a new platform to tokenize gold held in its London vaults, making trading and transfers easier.
HSBC Gold Token is backed by HSBC Orion, the bank’s digital asset platform. The bank has previously used Orion to distribute digital bonds, including a $750 million digital green bond in Hong Kong.
Commenting on the new token, General Manager Maggie Ng described it as a pioneer in the Hong Kong market.
“We are proud that HSBC Gold Token, powered by HSBC Orion, is Hong Kong’s first retail product based on distributed ledger technology approved by the Securities and Futures Commission,” said Ng, who is also head of the personal finance department. At the bank.
HSBC’s token is the product of a joint effort by Hong Kong authorities.
Tokenization. City-states have been at the forefront of tokenizing real-world assets. Some say the sector could be worth $15 trillion by the end of the decade.
As Ng noted, this push toward tokenization blends perfectly with the customer base’s existing familiarity with gold, making Gold Token the ideal first product in this line.
As the global tokenization revolution surges, tokenized gold has become a multibillion-dollar market. The sector has a market capitalization of $1.078 billion, according to CoinGecko. However, most of the companies that dominate the sector do not have access to the regulated traditional financial industry, which gives HSBC an advantage.
“Asset tokenization provides convenient, affordable and widespread access to real-world and financial assets, in this case HSBC Gold Tokens,” said Sami Abouzahr, head of asset solutions at HSBC HK.
While Hong Kong is leading the way, other countries are also taking giant leaps through tokenization. Israel recently announced the results of Project Eden, a project to tokenize government bonds using blockchain technology.
In Germany, Deutsche Börse is working on a platform to make tokenized assets fungible, and in the US, Citibank (NASDAQ: C) is working on private equity tokenization.
See: Blockchain is more than a digital asset.
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