BOCI Issues Tokenized Security

BOCI, a subsidiary of the Bank of China’s investment bank, announced on June 12 the issuance of structured digital notes worth $28 million that were created on the Ethereum blockchain.

BOCI became the first Chinese financial institution to issue a tokenized security in Hong Kong due to this action. UBS aided in the initiation of the product for placement with its customer in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ying Wang, the deputy CEO of BOCI, stated:

“Working together with UBS, we are driving the simplification of digital asset markets and products, for customers in Asia Pacific through the development of blockchain-based digital structured products, designed specifically for customers in Asia Pacific.”

UBS had expanded its tokenization across structured products, fixed income, and repo financing concurrently with this development.

In December 2022, the company issued a $50 million tokenized fixed-rate note under English and Swiss law, digitalized on a permissioned blockchain.

Previously, it was reported that Hong Kong granted retail consumers access to cryptocurrency exchanges on June 1.

Approximately two weeks later, Hong Kong’s undersecretary for financial services and the treasury, Joseph Chan Ho-Lim, stated that the unique administrative region is “actively participating” in the blockchain industry and plans to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins within one year.

Hong Kong issued an HK$800 million green bond tokenized on Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP tokenization protocol with a 4.05% annual yield on February 16.

Hong Kong introduced two cryptocurrency futures exchange-traded funds in December 2022, raising over $70 million before their launch.