HSBC has just launched a tokenized gold product for retail investors in Hong Kong, following an institutional version that appeared in late 2023. Bugra Celik is director of digital assets at HSBC global private banking and wealth. He speaks with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about how tokenized gold works and the pros and cons compared to gold ETFs or other types of exposure. Celik also touches on lessons from fintech companies tokenizing gold, how this fits into the bank’s broader agenda to tokenize real-world assets, and whether retail investors should treat gold as the better inflation hedge versus bitcoin. Timecodes: 0:00 – Bugra Celik, HSBC 1:46 – Why tokenize gold for retail investors 4:33 – Fractionalized gold versus paper gold and ETFs 7:34 – The bank’s business model for this product 9:58 – Other uses for tokenized gold, eg collateral 10:38 – Lessons from fintech companies trying to do this 15:08 – The underlying blockchain, interoperability, finality of trades 19:25 – Tokenized gold versus bitcoin 21:27 – Prospects for tokenizing other real-world assets 24:22 – KPIs and what is success