HSBC and Tokenisation: Orion, Tokenised Deposits and Gold

The pieces and how they fit

HSBC has put several tokenisation efforts under its digital assets banner. The diagram above shows how we understand them from the bank’s own pages. At the centre is HSBC Orion. Around it sit digital bonds, the UK sandbox approval, tokenised physical gold for institutions and the retail Gold Token. Separately, HSBC describes a Tokenised Deposit Service and digital asset custody; the pages we read do not say which platform they run on, so we have not drawn a link.

Everything here comes from HSBC’s own statements. That is useful for knowing what the bank says it does, but it is not independent verification, and the figures are the bank’s.

HSBC Orion: bonds on a ledger

HSBC describes Orion as a platform for issuing, managing and settling securities on distributed ledger infrastructure, with the compliance and controls institutional clients expect. The bank says it has enabled more than US$5bn of digital bond issuance, including what it calls the world’s first multi-currency bond offering.

In July 2026 HSBC said that HSBC Bank plc had become the first applicant the Bank of England approved to go live in the UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox. The sandbox is run by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority and is described as a live, flexible regulatory environment to test and implement new technologies. HSBC says Orion may operate in it as a depository for digitally native bonds, covering issuance, servicing and settlement, including the DIGIT digital gilt and corporate bonds.

The point worth noticing is regulatory, not technical. A sandbox lets firms run real activity under supervision and temporary rules. Approval to go live is a milestone, but it is not the same as being a permanent part of the market structure.

Tokenised deposits: bank money on a ledger

A tokenised deposit is a commercial bank deposit recorded as a digital token. It remains a claim on the bank, like any deposit, which separates it from a stablecoin issued by a non-bank and from a central bank digital currency. HSBC says its Tokenised Deposit Service supports round-the-clock liquidity between group companies and blockchain-based cross-border payments, and that real-time exchange of tokenised deposits in multiple currencies has launched in six markets.

This is the same family of idea that appears in central bank experiments. For instance, the BIS’s Project Agorá, covered in our BIS projects comparison, tests tokenised commercial bank deposits working alongside tokenised central bank reserves.

Gold: from institutions to retail

HSBC first offered tokenised physical gold to institutional investors using distributed ledger technology, and later launched the HSBC Gold Token for retail clients in Hong Kong, which gives fractional ownership of physical gold. HSBC’s 2024 release says both use the Orion platform. On its current page the bank describes it as one of the largest gold token assets globally and cites trading volume above US$2.37bn across more than 298,000 trades by July 2026, attributing the numbers to the Commodities Primary Trading System.

Those are impressive-sounding figures, so apply the usual caution: they are the bank’s claim, they measure trading, not holdings, and they say nothing about price performance. A tokenised asset is only as good as the legal link between the token and the metal behind it, so the questions to ask are who holds the gold, who audits it and what redemption rights the holder has.

A quantum-safe gold pilot

On 19 September 2024 HSBC announced a pilot of post-quantum cryptography on tokenised physical gold, with Quantinuum’s Quantum Origin randomness technology. It tested quantum-secure buying and selling of the tokens, using post-quantum methods to move gold tokens across distributed ledgers, and converting HSBC’s gold tokens into ERC-20 tokens to support distribution and interoperability with other ledgers and wallets. Quantinuum also demonstrated protecting digital assets against so-called “store now, decrypt later” attacks.

This links directly to the themes in our quantum governance explainer, where cryptographic agility is a core cybersecurity theme. The release reports no performance results, so treat it as a demonstration of intent and feasibility, not a benchmark.

Custody, and what to ask

HSBC also lists institutional-grade digital asset custody. The page gives no further detail. When assessing any bank-issued digital asset, it helps to run through a short list: what exactly does the token represent, who is the legal issuer, where is the underlying asset held, can the holder redeem it, and which regulator supervises the arrangement? Our seven questions for crypto projects is a good companion list.