Tokenised gold bar to advance Hong Kong’s ambitions as digital, metal trading hub

Hong Kong’s plan to start an interbank tokenised gold transaction project marks a crucial step in its quest to make itself a key global hub for the strategically important precious metal, according to analysts.

The city planned to launch a gold token representing a standard 400-ounce gold bar, referencing HAU, Hong Kong’s ticker for gold prices launched earlier this year, said Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu during the annual Fintech Week event on Monday.

He said the effort would build on experience gained through Project Ensemble – a pilot tokenisation and digital currency initiative launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in 2024.

“Tokenised gold is a really hot right now, because it brings together two of Hong Kong’s policy priorities: becoming a global digital assets hub and becoming a global gold trading hub,” said Andrew Fei, a partner at King & Wood in Hong Kong.

Institutions in the Asian financial hub have recently expanded their use of distributed ledger technology in the trading of the precious metal.

Ant Digital Technologies, the technology arm of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, said on Monday that its platform Anvita TaaS had facilitated a cross-bank tokenised gold transaction using tokenised deposits under Project Ensemble. Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Referencing the HAU gold price, Zhaojin Mining issued the gold, with China Construction Bank (Asia) serving as custodian and paying bank, while the Bank of East Asia and Jetco received the funds.

China Citic Bank International (CNCBI) and the Hong Kong Gold Exchange also said on Monday that they had completed a pilot test using tokenised deposits for gold trading settlement.

CNCBI’s tokenisation platform, connected with other banks through Project Ensemble, facilitates round-the-clock settlement across time zones, the bank said, adding that it aimed to launch the service in 2027.

The HKMA announced on Monday that it was advancing Project Ensemble to a new phase, where tokenised central bank money would serve as a “foundation layer” for 24/7 cross-border settlement.

Project Ensemble would help “bring tokenised gold from sandbox experimentation to scalable, real-value production” thanks to its “innovative digital financial market infrastructure”, which aimed to seamlessly settle tokenised transactions with tokenised deposits and other forms of on-chain money, Fei said.