Deniz 
As Hong Kong approaches testing tokenization inside the conventional financial sector, the island has opened a sandbox for experiment Ensemble, a wholesale central bank digital currency experiment (CBDC).
Usually used by financial organizations rather than the general public, wholesale CBDCs are used for daily transactions. Retail CBDCs are not utilized for interbank settlements or large-value payments; wholesale CBDCs are used in these regards.
Declared the sandbox on Wednesday, the de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, specified the four areas it will first concentrate on: fixed income and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, trade, and supply chain finance.
The HKMA said that experimental tokenized money is meant to help interbank settlement. Among the main players are Microsoft, Ant Digital, HashKey, Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of China, and HSBC. Additionally scheduled to take part in the Project Ensemble Sandbox are many asset managers: BlackRock, CSOP Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, and China Asset Management.
Following the HKMA’s Project Ensemble in March as part of the second phase of its e-HKD pilot to investigate programmability, tokenization, and atomic settlement linked with the CBDC in the trial, the sandbox’s launch follows. Its website claims that the HKMA started investigating CBDCs in 2017 and started giving more study on a possible e-HKD in 2021 at both wholesale and retail levels as a top priority.
“We have been inspired by the great industry interest in creative ideas to redefine the digital finance scene since the launch of Project Ensemble in March,” HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue said in the Wednesday statement. “The introduction of the Project Ensemble Sandbox marks a major step forward for the HKMA and the industry to explore the application of tokenization in real-life business scenarios,” Yue said.
Ant Digital Technologies, the blockchain division of Ant Group, stated in line with the sandbox that it aims to increase finance efficiency. For instance, Longshine Technology, an energy company, has “successfully secured its first cross-border financing for RWAs in Hong Kong,” Ant Digital noted, having digitized over 9,000 of its charging piles as “real world assets” ( RWAs).
According to its announcement, Hong Kong-based digital asset services company HashKey Group also intends to test tokenization and trading of RWAs, including carbon credits, green assets, and money market funds.
You can also freely share your thoughts and comments about the topic in the comment section. Additionally, don’t forget to follow us on our Telegram, YouTube, and Twitter channels for the latest news and updates.