BOCI, the investment banking arm of the Bank of China, has issued tokenized securities on Ethereum in Hong Kong, according to a Monday press release. The CNH 200 million ($28 million) of structured notes were underwritten by Swiss banking giant UBS and placed with clients in the Asia Pacific region. This marks the first time a Chinese financial institution has issued tokenized securities on a public blockchain in Hong Kong.
Major banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America have predicted that the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) can drive crypto adoption and bring trillions of dollars in value to blockchains. This BOCI transaction also highlights Hong Kong’s ambition to become a key hub for crypto as the industry faces increasing regulatory pressure in the United States.
We are encouraged by the evolution of Hong Kong’s digital economy and are committed to promoting the digital transformation and innovative development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, said Ying Wang, deputy chief executive at BOCI.