The Doha Bank of Qatar announced today that it officially settled a $150 million digital bond with Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (D-FMI), a permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
Standard Chartered reportedly served as the sole global coordinator and arranger on the deal, spearheading the structuring, execution, and distribution of Doha Bank’s $150 million digital bond.
Doha Bank’s $150M digital bond
The deal comes at a time when a growing number of banks and regulators across the Middle East and Asia have been adopting permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms for digital bond issuance to ensure regulatory control.
Of course, that does not mean public blockchains are being completely ignored; selective use cases, such as DBS’s tokenized structured notes on Ethereum, have shown that those blockchains are also being deployed where investor access, programmability, and market design make openness viable.
“Doha Bank’s debut digital bond issuance underscores the tangible, real-world efficiencies that cutting-edge digital infrastructure is delivering for capital markets, and the increasing appetite among our clients for this next-gen capability and execution,” said Salman Ansari, the bank’s global head of capital markets.
Other regional banks have seen similar digital bond success
Doha Bank’s deal comes after similar significant milestones, such as Qatar National Bank’s (QNB) $500 million digital bond issuance, which occurred in November 2025.
The deal is being tagged the largest transaction of its kind by a financial institution in the Middle East and Africa, and the three-year floating-rate bond was issued via HSBC’s Orion platform, a leading blockchain-based digital assets system operated under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
According to QNB, the move is a step towards adopting digital asset technologies across the region and aligns with its strategy to diversify funding sources and tap into new markets via innovative digital financing tools. It also added that the deal is proof of the strong confidence global investors have in QNB’s financial position and long-term strategy.
HSBC was the sole bookrunner on the transaction, and the bond was structured with support from leading international law firms, which highlighted what QNB described as a high level of governance and regulatory rigour.
QNB said the collaboration – which combines HSBC’s global expertise with the bank’s strong regional presence – sets a precedent for digital assets to play a central role in the financial landscape of Qatar and the wider region.
The digital bonds were issued under QNB’s Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) program will also ultimately be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which will also facilitate licensing for trading digital debt notes.
Global investors who want to access the bonds can do so via HKMA accounts, Euroclear, Clearstream, or by joining the HSBC Orion platform directly.
Join Bybit now and claim a $50 bonus in minutes
