UK Treasury Chooses HSBC Blockchain for Digital Gilt Pilot
The UK Treasury has picked HSBC’s blockchain platform to run its digital gilt pilot, marking a major government-backed trial of tokenized sovereign debt. The pilot will probe issuance mechanics, settlement speed, custody arrangements and secondary-market trading on an institutional-grade distributed ledger, while the Treasury frames this as a controlled test rather than an immediate market-wide rollout.
If the pilot succeeds, it could shorten settlement times, reduce operational frictions and improve transparency for gilt investors, potentially making government debt more accessible and programmable. The selection also reinforces HSBC’s role in tokenization infrastructure and keeps London in the conversation on digital-asset market plumbing. Regulators and market participants will be watching the pilot’s operational, legal and interoperability outcomes before any broader adoption is considered.