Key Points
- HSBC’s online banking website and mobile app offer access to tokenized gold to retail investors in Hong Kong.
- The HSBC Gold Token is built on the HSBC Orion platform.
Amidst strong efforts made by the Hong Kong government in the race for RWA tokenization, the legendary bank HSBC has just launched tokenized gold products for retail customers.
HSBC revealed today that retail customers are able to access the HSBC Gold Token via the bank’s online platform and mobile app. The move marks the first time that the bank’s private distributed ledger is used for tokenizing a retail investment product.
The bank built the token with HSBC Orion, its digital asset platform. Previously, HSBC launched digital bonds in Hong Kong and Luxembourg.
Maggie Ng, general manager and head of wealth and personal banking in Hong Kong at HSBC, says that the financial banking company is proud to release the HSBC Gold Token powered by HSBC Orion, detailing that the Securities and Futures Commission authorizes the first retail product in Hong Kong based on DLT.
The new launch marks a deeper plunge of HSBC in the exploration of financial use cases with the help of blockchain technology. Back in November 2023, the bank revealed plans to provide custody services for crypto, including tokenized securities. For the move, it teamed up with Metaco, a Swiss-based crypto company.
RWA tokenization popularity is on the rise
The RWA tokenization industry continues to see rising success, especially following the BlackRock on-chain initiative.
The world’s largest asset manager by assets under management has recently submitted a form to the U.S. SEC for its initiative called the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund using Ethereum.
BlackRock’s fund is developed in partnership with Securitize, a San Francisco-based company, and it’s registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The details of the new fund are revealed in a new March 19 SEC filing.
BlackRock’s move was enough to pump the whole RWA sector.
The current total market cap of the RWA sector is now a bit over $8 billion, up by about 12% in the past 24 hours, with a daily trading volume of almost $2 billion, according to CoinGecko.
