Hong Kong Shatters Records With $1.5B Digital Bond Sale

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Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation completes world’s largest digital bond issuance

Hong Kong recently sold its largest digital bond yet, raising about HK$12 billion (around $1.5 billion). This continues the city’s efforts to modernize its bond market by using blockchain technology.

Summary

  • Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation priced a HK$12 billion digital bond sale, which it described as the largest tokenized bond issuance completed globally.
  • Investor demand reached about HK$24 billion equivalent, with orders from more than 100 institutional accounts across Hong Kong, mainland China, and overseas markets.
  • The blockchain based issuance reduced settlement time from five business days to three and set a new maturity record for a Hong Kong dollar digital bond.

On June 11, the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) announced the successful pricing of its first-ever digital bond offering. This offering is part of a larger $30 billion bond program. Investors showed strong interest, and the final pricing was determined in Hong Kong on June 10 after a series of presentations and preliminary marketing.

As a researcher, I’ve found that the transaction is structured with three different parts. First, there’s a HK$6 billion bond with a two-year term. Second, a HK$2.5 billion bond that matures in five years. Finally, there’s a RMB3 billion bond with a three-year term.

During the peak of investor interest, we saw demand reach approximately HK$24 billion, coming from over 100 different accounts. Our investor base was quite diverse, including local investors, those accessing the market through the Southbound Bond Connect, and a range of international institutions. This included central banks, multilateral development banks, insurance companies, private banks, commercial banks, and various asset managers.

This bond sale is bigger than any previous digital bond offering in Hong Kong and, according to the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC), represents the largest digital bond sale worldwide to date.

Hong Kong expands tokenized bond market

These bonds were created using blockchain technology and issued directly on a platform run by Hong Kong’s Central Moneymarkets Unit. The Unit also managed the process of completing the transactions and securely holding the bonds.

In addition to the deal’s size, HKMC explained that it shortened the time it takes to finalize a transaction from five business days to three. Investors could buy the bonds using their current accounts with Central Moneymarkets Unit, as well as connections to Euroclear and Clearstream.

As an analyst, I can confirm that our recent five-year Hong Kong dollar bond issuance is a landmark achievement. It’s the longest-dated digital bond ever issued in Hong Kong dollars, setting a new record for maturity in this market.

As a researcher following Hong Kong’s financial developments, I noted that Lee Wai Man, a key figure at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and HKMC, highlighted this transaction as a clear endorsement of the government’s plan to solidify Hong Kong’s position as a leading global hub for fixed-income and financial services. He also suggested that this issuance could pave the way for wider adoption of tokenized fixed-income products by attracting more players – issuers, investors, and intermediaries – to the market.

Raymond Li, CEO of HKMC, stated that the strong demand from investors during the bond sale allowed them to set a successful price, and indicated growing enthusiasm from both financial institutions and investors in digital bonds.

Hong Kong is actively developing its infrastructure for trading tokenized debt. Just recently, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority created a group of experts – including major financial institutions like JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, Ant Digital, and HashKey Group – to focus on this growing area.

The HKMA is studying how to make tokenized bonds more widely used in finance. This includes looking at current market practices, what regulations might be needed, and the necessary technological infrastructure.

As a crypto investor, I’ve been watching Hong Kong’s move into tokenization closely, and it’s exciting to see the government taking the lead. They started with about $100 million in tokenized green bonds last year, and then really stepped it up this year with a $750 million multi-currency digital green bond offering – which they said was the biggest of its kind when it launched. It shows they’re serious about exploring this technology and could pave the way for more innovation in the space.

This new bond offering from HKMC follows closely on the heels of a similar announcement by South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank, which recently sold $100 million in blockchain-based digital bonds in Hong Kong. Kookmin Bank explained that they used blockchain for the entire process – from issuing and registering the bonds to trading and completing the transaction – which sped up settlement from five business days to just three. This demonstrates a growing trend of financial institutions in Asia using digital versions of traditional debt.

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2026-06-12 13:38