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- HSBC has been working over the past years to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) on blockchain technology amid heightened demand by institutional clients.
- The banking giant has praised the distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is similar to Ripple Labs-backed XRPL, to facilitate seamless FX transactions.
HSBC Holdings, an international financial service provider with around $10 trillion in assets under custody (AUC), has formally announced the launch of the HSBC Gold token to facilitate blockchain-based gold tokenization. The HSBC Gold Token will be minted on the bank’s Orion digital assets platform and will also be available through the HSBC Online Banking and the HSBC HK Mobile App.
“We are proud that HSBC Gold Token, powered by HSBC Orion, is the first retail product in Hong Kong that is based on distributed ledger technology, as authorized by the Securities and Futures Commission,” Maggie Ng, HSBC Hong Kong head of wealth and personal banking, noted.
In November last year, HSBC bank announced that it would be working with Swiss enterprise tech firm Metaco, to utilize its institutional custody grade Harmonize. As Crypto News Flash previously pointed out, Ripple has been reshaping the future of finance through tokenization with the help of Metaco, which it acquired for $250 million earlier last year.
#HSBC to launch 🚀 Tokenized Gold tomorrow.
On November 2023 #HSBC announced a new DigitalAssets Custody service for 💥 INSTITUTIONAL CLIENTS 💥 in partnership with #Metaco, a company owned by @Ripple.#HSBC also mentioned the $XRP Ledger for real time settlements pic.twitter.com/oBxnfu1ipt
— EDO FARINA 🅧 XRP (@edward_farina) March 26, 2024
The Inevitable Rise of RWA
The tangible rise of real-world assets (RWA) tokenization has significantly improved the overall cryptocurrency utility and blockchain technology. In line with what Crypto News Flash disclosed, HSBC has been working to democratize the stock market through blockchain tokenization in a bid to remain market-relevant.
Remarkably, HSBC bank has been exploring the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) as early as 2019 when the bank announced that it had settled more than 3 million FX transactions worth more than $250 billion via DLT.
The need to access global markets through blockchain technology has attracted more institutional investors led by BlackRock, which recently kickstarted its real-world assets tokenization bid through the Ethereum network.
Market Picture
The need to tokenize gold comes as Bitcoin gradually eats through its global market. As of this report, the tokenized gold market cap hovered around $1.07 billion, with a daily trading volume of about $26 million. Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) are the leading by market cap, according to data provided by Coingecko.
As previously reported by Crypto News Flash, veteran gold miner, Nilam Resources from South America, has diversified its portfolio by purchasing $1.7 billion worth of Bitcoins.
The move demonstrated the demand for Bitcoin to hedge against looming wars and untamed fiat inflation. Furthermore, Bitcoin price has significantly outshined Gold since its inception, and the trend is expected to continue on the same path in the coming quarters amid the confirmed bull cycle.
Impact on Ripple (XRP) Price Action
Despite the negative impact of the ongoing SEC vs Ripple lawsuit, XRP has significantly benefited from the notable XRPL developments and institutional adoption around the world. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $62 billion, has signaled an inevitable bull run in the near term.
According to the latest market data, XRP price is up 16% in the past four weeks to trade around $0.62 on Wednesday.
