🇬🇧🇭🇰 JUST IN: The London Metal Exchange is exploring turning metal stored in its Hong Kong warehouses into digital tokens that can be used for financing, per Reuters.
Three people familiar with the matter say the initiative is tied to Hong Kong's five-year plan to expand its commodities hub, and had not previously been reported. The LME confirmed it is "at the early stages of exploring the tokenisation of off-warrant metal inventories to support financing of business."
The idea is to create digital assets backed by physical metal that can serve as collateral for loans, making warehouse inventory easier to finance. LME CEO Matt Chamberlain first floated tokenisation in a speech at LME Week Asia in May.
The Hong Kong link makes strategic sense. The world's largest and oldest metals exchange has been owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing since 2012. Hong Kong's approved warehouse network has grown from four sites to 15, holding nearly 25,000 tons of metal, and Chamberlain says the city is working to scale storage up toward 100,000 tons. Hong Kong's plan says it wants to use its position as an LME delivery point to drive more commodities trading, risk management and financing.
It also fits a wider push into real-world asset tokenization, with Hong Kong's exchange already testing tokenized carbon credits that settle in seconds instead of days.
No timeline, structure or blockchain has been announced, and it's still early. But if it works, one of the oldest markets in finance could get a very modern financing layer.
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