The UK government has launched a pilot for the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT), aiming to test a digitally native, tokenized sovereign bond issued on a distributed ledger. HM Treasury appointed six joint lead managers — Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets — with contracts running from June 1, 2026 to May 2027 (extendable). The pilot targets issuance by the end of Q1 2027 and will be conducted inside the Digital Securities Sandbox, with on-chain settlement on HSBC’s Orion platform; HSBC was named the DLT provider on February 12, 2026.
DIGIT is designed as a short-dated gilt born on the ledger rather than a paper bond with a token attached. The project follows a July 2026 memorandum between HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group on interoperability and depository links. Industry voices including Richard Baker and Marius Jurgilas emphasise that on-chain settlement must connect to cash, custody and existing settlement infrastructure with common standards and legal certainty if tokenization is to improve liquidity, broaden investor access and avoid creating isolated digital silos.