HSBC Orion & FAB Shatter Tradition: MENA’s First Digital Native Bond Hits ADX in 2025

Banks finally drag bonds into the 21st century—no paper cuts, just blockchain receipts.

The DeFi domino falls

HSBC's Orion platform teams up with First Abu Dhabi Bank to launch what they're calling a 'digitally native' bond on Abu Dhabi's exchange. Translation: no physical certificates, no medieval settlement delays—just a distributed ledger pretending this isn't basically an IOU with better PR.

Why ADX? Because compliance loves sandboxes

The UAE's financial hub gets another blockchain trophy for its cabinet. Watch as regulators carefully ignore how this makes 80% of legacy bond infrastructure obsolete overnight.

The fine print cynicism

Let's be real—this 'innovation' only happened because some VP needed a bullet point for their promotion case. But hey, if it burns a few hundred tons of banker's midnight oil paperwork? We'll take it.