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The government of Hong Kong has announced the successful sale of the world’s first tokenised green bonds worth roughly HK$800 million ($102 million).

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the government green bond program and leveraged the Goldman Sachs tokenisation platform (GSDAP) to tokenise the assets on a private blockchain.

The tokenized bonds are expected to lower the bond issuance and settlement costs and bring more transparency to the bond market.

The government said on Feb. 16 that it partnered with the Bank of China, HSBC, Credit Agricole, and Goldman Sachs to complete the issuance of its first tokenised green bond.

The government disclosed that it raised approximately HK$800 million (US$102 million) from the bond sale — which was settled through the HKMA CMU Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU). The green bonds were issued with an annual yield of 4.05%.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chain said that the successful issuance of tokenised green bonds marks the government’s commitment to promoting innovation in the financial market.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is on the path to becoming a choice destination for crypto innovation. The government is reportedly working to legalise crypto trading from June 1.