PANews reported on November 29 that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially announced the launch of the "Digital Bond Funding Scheme" (Funding Scheme) announced in the 2024 Policy Address, aiming to promote the development of the digital securities market and encourage the wider use of tokenization technology in the capital market. The Funding Scheme is now accepting applications for an initial period of three years. If the relevant eligibility requirements of the Funding Scheme are met, each digital bond issued in Hong Kong can receive a maximum of HK$2.5 million in funding.
According to Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, more than US$10 billion of tokenized bonds have been issued globally in the past 10 years. Following the successful issuance of tokenized bonds twice, the Evergreen project has moved beyond the proof-of-concept stage. The next step is to promote the market to more widely apply feasible solutions and strive to break through the boundaries of "possibility". Through innovative financial market infrastructure (i.e. Ensemble Sandbox), it will support the development of Hong Kong's tokenization market and discuss with the industry the use cases of tokenization, including fixed-income and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, and trade and supply chain financing. The initial focus is on tokenized deposits as the settlement method for tokenized asset transactions.
