Share this article
HSBC Exec Says Using Blockchain Slashed Forex Trading Costs by 25%
An HSBC executive has told Reuters that using blockchain slashed the costs of settling foreign exchange trades.
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:53 a.m. Published Feb 14, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
An HSBC executive has said that the bank's blockchain-based system has helped it cut the costs of settling foreign exchange trades.
Speaking to Reuters, Mark Williamson, chief operating officer of FX cash trading and risk management, who oversees the blockchain project, said that its HSBC FX Everywhere platform saved it 25 percent as compared with traditional methods.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Last month, the bank announced it had settled more than $250 billion in transactions using its HSBC FX Everywhere platform.
It said then that it had settled 3 million foreign exchange transactions and made a further 150,000 payments over the digital ledger system, which it has been using over the last year “to orchestrate payments across HSBC’s internal balance sheets.”
In the Reuters report, Williamson said that HSBC processes from 3,500 to 5,000 trades a day on FX Everywhere, with trades now being worth $350 billion.
“We’re able to demonstrate that this is not a one-off proof of concept or just one or two trades,” Williamson said.
Reuters further quoted him as saying that a "significant" amount of internal money flows are likely to be settled on the DLT system.
HSBC has been experimenting wit blockchain for some time. Since joining blockchain consortium startup R3 in 2015, it has teamed up with Bank of America and the Singapore government on a blockchain supply chain trial
It's also joined work on the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project, designed to make it easier for global banks to conduct a variety of transactions with each other using collateralized assets on a custom-built blockchain.
HSBC sign image via Shutterstock
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin Treads Water Near $90K as Bitfinex Warns of 'Fragile Setup' to Shocks
BTC's relative weakness compared to stocks points to tepid spot demand, making the largest crypto vulnerable to macro volatility, Bitfinex analysts said.
What to know:
- Bitcoin erased very modest overnight gains early Monday and spent the rest of the U.S. session in a tight range around the $90,000 level.
- Rising long bond yields and a small U.S. equities pulling back weighed on risk appetite as traders eye this week's Federal Reserve meeting.
- Bitfinex analysts pointed out bitcoin's relative weakness against U.S. stocks amid modest spot demand and structural softness.
Top Stories
