On Friday, UBS Wealth Management announced it issued $50 million in blockchain-based debt securities to high net worth individuals (HNWIs). Hong Kong and Singapore investors bought the six month, fixed-rate security tokens via a private placement.
“We registered strong interest for this inaugural issue from regional high net worth individuals and family offices, which underscores their interest in digital securities,” said Amy Lo, co-head of UBS Global Wealth Management APAC.
The London office of UBS issued the securities under English and Swiss law. While UBS is the issuer, it will explore third-party issuers in the future. The project used a permissioned version of Ethereum.
This follows last month’s $370 million blockchain bond issuance on the SIX Digital Exchange.
Meanwhile, numerous digital securities and tokenization platforms are being launched in Asia.
Singapore leads the way with local stock exchange SGX backing multiple platforms such as ADDX and Marketnode. Singapore’s biggest bank DBS has issued a tokenized bond using its platform and Japan’s SBI Digital Markets has a presence in Singapore and is looking to issue digital bonds.
Japan is the home to several token issuance platforms. One of them is MUFG’s Progmat which has already been involved in several security token issuances, particularly around real estate.
Nomura co-founded the BOOSTRY blockchain platform with ibet software for bond issuance. It’s working with the Tokyo Stock Exchange operator JPX on green bond issuance.
In Hong Kong the government is exploring blockchain-based green bonds.
