Today in crypto, the UK government appointed HSBC Orion for its tokenized digital bond pilot, crypto lender BlockFills revealed it halted customer withdrawals last week on market conditions, and BlackRock announced its first formal move into decentralized finance, bringing its BUIDL tokenized US Treasury fund to Uniswap.
UK government taps HSBC for tokenized bond pilot
The United Kingdom’s government has appointed HSBC’s tokenization platform to power a pilot issuance of digital government bonds, known as “gilts,” marking the latest step in its push to modernize sovereign debt markets using blockchain technology.
HM Treasury has appointed HSBC Orion to facilitate the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot issuance, according to a Thursday announcement.
The Treasury published a DIGIT pilot update in July 2025, outlining plans to explore blockchain applications in UK sovereign debt issuance and to support the development of domestic tokenization infrastructure.
“We want to attract investment and make the UK the best place to do business,” said Lucy Rigby, UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury, commenting on HSBC Orion’s DIGIT appointment. She added that the pilot will help the UK explore how to capitalize on distributed ledger technology (DLT), enhance efficiency and reduce costs for businesses.
The DIGIT pilot aims to enable digitally native, short-dated government bonds operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).
The pilot is designed to support secondary market development and broader accessibility, with onchain settlement, while operating independently of the UK government’s main debt management program.
Crypto lender halted withdrawals during Bitcoin’s fall last week
Institution-focused crypto lending platform BlockFills said it halted customer deposits and withdrawals last week as Bitcoin and the broader crypto market continued to tumble.
The suspension, which remains in effect, was intended to protect clients and restore liquidity on the platform, BlockFills said in an X post on Wednesday.
Last week’s market tumble saw Bitcoin fall another 24% from $78,995 to around $60,000.
Blockfills said the withdrawal and deposit halt came “in light of recent market and financial conditions.”
“Management has been working hand in hand with investors and clients to bring this issue to a swift resolution and to restore liquidity to the platform,” BlockFills said.
“Clients have been able to continue trading with BlockFills for the purpose of opening and closing positions in spot and derivatives* trading and select other circumstances,” BlockFills added.
The halt potentially impacts about 2,000 institutional clients, including asset managers and hedge funds, which contributed to more than $60 billion in trading volume on the platform in 2025.
The crypto liquidity and lending platform serves only investors with crypto holdings of $10 million or more.
BlackRock enters DeFi, taps Uniswap for institutional token trading
Asset management giant BlackRock is making its first formal move into decentralized finance by bringing its tokenized US Treasury fund to Uniswap, marking a milestone moment for institutional adoption of DeFi.
According to a Wednesday announcement, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) will be listed on the Uniswap decentralized exchange, allowing institutional investors to buy and sell the tokenized security.
As part of the arrangement, the world’s biggest asset manager is also purchasing an undisclosed amount of Uniswap’s native governance token, UNI, the announcement said.
In the wake of Wednesday’s announcement, investors drove the price of UNI as high as $4.2993, CoinMarketCap data showed. Trading volume was 461% higher in the last 24 hours, as of 21:12 UTC, with $879.4 million worth of the tokens trading hands.
The collaboration is being facilitated by tokenization company Securitize, which partnered with the world’s biggest asset manager on the launch of BUIDL. According to Fortune, trading will initially be limited to a select group of eligible institutional investors and market makers before expanding more broadly.
