The bank placed USD-denominated notes issued directly on a blockchain, with Marketnode acting as tokenization agent and digital paying agent.
HSBC has completed what it describes as its first issuance of a digitally native structured product, a private placement of USD-denominated notes in Hong Kong, the bank said in a July 10 release.
The notes were issued directly on a blockchain rather than digitized after issuance. Marketnode, an Asia-Pacific digital market infrastructure operator backed by Euroclear, HSBC, SGX Group and Temasek, acted as the tokenization agent and as the digital paying agent managing payment flows between issuer and investor.
HSBC did not disclose the size of the issuance, the reference asset, the tenor of the notes, the number or identity of investors, or the blockchain used.
What Was Issued
The transaction was a private placement of structured notes, a class of products whose returns are linked to the performance of an underlying asset. HSBC framed the deal as a pilot intended to show how tokenization can affect issuance, settlement and ongoing servicing across a product’s lifecycle.
“Building on HSBC’s work in digital assets and innovation, this issuance demonstrates how we’re working with market participants to develop practical, scalable solutions for institutional-grade digital finance,” said Suvir Loomba, Regional Head of Securities Services, Asia, at HSBC and a Marketnode board member. “Tokenisation can help make markets more efficient and accessible by streamlining key steps across product lifecycles — from issuance and settlement, through to ongoing administration and servicing.”
Patrick Boumalham, Head of Institutional Sales, Asia, at HSBC, said structured products are “an important part of investment solutions for institutional and wealth clients across Asia, where demand continues to grow,” and pointed to “clear potential for tokenisation to improve the efficiency of issuance, settlement and servicing.”
Building on Earlier Work
The issuance extends a multi-year push by HSBC into tokenized and digitally native instruments, much of it centered on Hong Kong. The bank operates HSBC Orion, a tokenization platform used for digitally native bond issuance, and has launched a retail gold token in Hong Kong.
HSBC’s collaboration with Marketnode on structured notes also predates this deal. The two firms, together with UOB, contributed a case study on digitally native issuance of structured notes as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian.
Rehan Ahmed, CEO of Marketnode, said the deal “marks a meaningful step towards enabling investors to manage more of their portfolios on-chain, pairing broader access with efficiency gains.”
HSBC positioned the transaction as a pilot but did not say whether it plans repeat or commercial issuance, or on what timeline. It also did not detail the regulatory framework for the deal, whether settlement occurred on a delivery-versus-payment basis, whether the cash leg was tokenized, or whether the token constitutes the legal record of ownership. The Defiant has contacted HSBC for further detail.
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