In a Börsen-Zeitung interview, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance reported strong institutional investor reception for Luxembourg’s first digital sovereign debt instrument, a six-month Digital Treasury Certificate issued using distributed ledger technology (DLT) under Luxembourg law via HSBC’s Luxembourg-based Orion platform, and framed the transaction as a step in the Treasury’s digitisation. The issuance was marketed exclusively to institutional investors, with demand seen mainly from banks and asset managers and largely reflecting the predominantly European investor base for Luxembourg government securities. While describing DLT use in capital markets as still experimental, the ministry pointed to faster issuance and settlement as practical benefits, including a shorter settlement cycle that could reduce counterparty risk and support liquidity, with same-day settlement viewed as achievable when using tokenised central bank money or a digital euro. It also indicated that expanding DLT use for sovereign refinancing would depend on digital bonds becoming eligible for central bank operations without intermediaries, noting early tests involving the Central Bank of Luxembourg. Roth also highlighted Luxembourg’s recently adopted fourth Blockchain law, which creates an optional “control agent” function regulated by the financial supervisor to maintain the issuance account, track ownership and reconcile issued securities, offering a blockchain-based alternative to the current two-tier holding chain between a central account keeper and secondary account keepers.

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