The Hong Kong government has issued its fourth digital green bond at around HKD 20 billion ($2.55 billion), once again setting a record for the largest digital bond issuance globally. The offering spans four currencies with the RMB bond the largest, and the longest tenor at five years. It was oversubscribed across all tranches with subscription ratios between 1.3 and 11.3 times.
Since the program launched in 2023, Hong Kong has issued digital bonds annually with substantial growth in scale, from $100 million in 2023 to the latest one which is 25 times larger, and also double the 2025 issuance. The 2026 issuance again used the HSBC Orion platform, which is integrated with the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) central securities depository.
The most notable innovation this time is the incorporation of tokenized deposits through the EnsembleTX platform for primary settlement of the HKD tranche. This means the issuance now supports three settlement methods alongside each other. Investors can choose between traditional settlement rails, tokenized central bank money (introduced in the previous issuance) and tokenized deposits. HSBC’s David Liao said the transaction brings together the key components needed for broader adoption, namely choice, interoperability and practical market utility.
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