Hong Kong reportedly hired a group of banks to assist in establishing a digital hub for issuing green bonds utilizing blockchain technology.
According to a Bloomberg article, the city is reportedly in discussions to form a group that will investigate the viability of issuing multi-series fixed-rate digital green bonds with HSBC, Credit Agricole, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and UBS.
Sources with direct knowledge of the situation claim that Hong Kong is considering issuing digital bonds on an HSBC-developed distributed ledger. According to Bloomberg’s sources, digital bonds may have maturities of up to two years and be issued with tenors in the Hong Kong dollar, euros, offshore yuan, and US dollars.
Hong Kong is searching for a fresh strategy to establish itself as a pioneer in the digital asset market in light of the most recent action. Early in December 2023, it was revealed that throughout the course of 2023, enterprises based in Singapore and Hong Kong received over 11% of all global venture capital funding related to blockchain and cryptocurrency.
PitchBook experts speculate that the shift in capital flow may have resulted from the failure of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the subsequent cascading bankruptcy of other U.S.-based cryptocurrency startups.
The New York-based cryptocurrency investment firm CoinFund stated in mid-November 2023 that it was expanding its services to Asia due to ongoing regulatory issues facing the U.S. industry.
Not all VC firms with a crypto focus increased their presence in Hong Kong, including CoinFund. The other U.S.-based investment crypto firm, Hivemind Capital Partners, also arrived in the area in November 2023.