Bank of Korea governor outlines tokenized bond vision, unified ledger plan
Hyun Song Shin, governor of the Bank of Korea, said tokenizing government bonds could simplify bond issuance and management, making collateral verification, account crediting, and transaction reversals easier and less error-prone. He called tokenized government bonds the main benefit of tokenization and said they could be linked with wholesale central bank digital currencies and tokenized commercial bank deposits on a unified ledger through an expanded Project Hangang, a Bank of Korea pilot for a blockchain-based wholesale CBDC system. Tokenized US Treasury debt is the largest tokenized real-world asset category, at $14.6 billion, about 46% of the $31.7 billion market. A Bank for International Settlements report said government bond tokenization could improve market efficiency, reduce settlement risk, broaden access, and support financial innovation if infrastructure and regulatory issues are resolved. The report reviewed 39 tokenized bonds and found suggestive evidence of lower bid-ask spreads and similar issuance costs and yields versus conventional bonds.
