HM Treasury selects HSBC Orion to power UK's Digital Gilt Instrument pilot
Key points
- HM Treasury has selected HSBC Orion as the platform provider for the DIGIT pilot, positioning the UK as the first G7 country to attempt tokenised sovereign bond issuance on a blockchain.
- HSBC Orion has enabled more than US$3.5 billion in digitally native bond issuances globally across sovereign, supranational, central bank, financial institution, and corporate issuers.
- Prior milestones on the platform include the European Investment Bank's first digital sterling bond (2023), Hong Kong Government's world's largest digital bond at US$1.3 billion-equivalent (2025), and the first MENA digital bond by First Abu Dhabi Bank (2025).
- The Treasury's stated objectives for DIGIT include accelerating transaction settlement, reducing issuance costs for firms, and improving liquidity in both primary and secondary gilt markets.
- The mandate was awarded through a competitive selection process, with HSBC citing Orion's proven record of delivering 'liquid market outcomes in other jurisdictions' as a differentiator.
HM Treasury has awarded HSBC Orion the platform mandate for the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot issuance, making the United Kingdom the first G7 nation to pursue tokenised sovereign bond issuance on a blockchain. The selection followed a competitive process, with HSBC’s digital assets infrastructure chosen to underpin what the Treasury frames as a live test of blockchain’s potential to reduce costs and improve efficiencies across UK debt capital markets.
The strategic logic is straightforward: DIGIT is designed to probe whether tokenised issuance can compress settlement timelines and improve liquidity conditions in both primary and secondary gilt markets. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby KC MP positioned the initiative as part of a broader effort to keep the UK competitive as a global capital markets centre, explicitly linking it to investment attraction and business environment goals.
HSBC Orion arrives at this mandate with a documented track record. The platform has facilitated more than US$3.5 billion in digitally native bond issuance across sovereign, supranational, central bank, financial institution, and corporate sectors. Notable prior transactions include the European Investment Bank’s first digital sterling bond in 2023, the Hong Kong Government’s multi-currency digital green bond programme, and the world’s largest digital bond to date, a US$1.3 billion-equivalent green bond issued by the Hong Kong Government in 2025.
For operators watching the tokenised sovereign debt space, the DIGIT pilot is the clearest signal yet that the UK intends to move beyond consultation and into structured issuance experimentation. The selection of an incumbent with cross-jurisdictional execution history, rather than a native digital-asset infrastructure provider, suggests the Treasury is prioritising demonstrated liquidity outcomes over technical novelty. How DIGIT performs on secondary market liquidity will be the metric that shapes any subsequent programme scale-up.