Yesterday HSBC published a job posting for a business analyst for digital assets and digital asset custody. In September, Coindesk reported sources saying HSBC had partnered with digital asset custody platform Fireblocks.
The advert is for a Hong Kong based role within the Digital Business Services division, which provides solutions to the entire group.
A key requirement is experience “leading (a) digital asset custody product in production scale” and the top four skills relate to digital asset custody.
However, the job title is for digital assets more generally and the position requires knowledge of “digital asset trading platforms, digital asset wallet, NFT, Web3.”
Earlier this year, HSBC published a report on tokenization jointly with Northern Trust. Both are top ten global custodians. They predict that 5%-10% of all assets will be tokenized by 2030, which we extrapolated to $19.5 trillion. They believe trust will play a critical role in future markets – especially trust in custodians.
To date HSBC has more experience in DLT, tokenized traditional assets and CBDC versus web3. It’s conducting a pilot for the Hong Kong CBDC, the eHKD. And it was involved in Regulated Liability Network trials on both sides of the pond.
On the web3 front, last year it bought NFT land in the Sandbox metaverse to support its sports sponsorships. HSBC’s asset management arm also launch a metaverse fund in Asia.
