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Watch

The Watch checks what has changed in the UK's trials of blockchain for shares and government bonds, which are described on Financial markets. Every two weeks the official pages are opened again, and what they say is set against the last reading.

This is the first edition, of 30 Oct 2026, set against the reading of 22 Oct 2026. In short: a third firm, LSEG B3 Limited, was approved to work live in the Digital Securities Sandbox, which the Bank of England and the FCA run. The government's digital bond, the Digital Gilt Instrument, has still not been issued. Pages that were not opened again are named at the end, and are not called unchanged.

The next edition is due on 13 Nov 2026. It is written by hand: this page does not update itself.

Information, not advice.

The sandbox dashboard

In the Digital Securities Sandbox a firm can be approved to record and settle shares and bonds on a distributed ledger. The Bank of England's dashboard page lists the approval notices given to firms. The notices are called Gate 1 and Gate 2. A Gate 2 notice is the one that lets a firm work live.

On 22 Oct 2026 the dashboard was recorded as updated on 9 Oct 2026. It listed approval notices for 17 firms. Two had a Gate 2 notice: HSBC Bank plc, dated 13 Jul 2026, and ClearToken CSD Limited, dated 18 Sep 2026. Those two notices were not opened that day.

On 30 Oct 2026 the same dashboard was last updated on 23 Oct 2026. It listed Gate 1 notices for 17 firms. Three of those firms also had a Gate 2 notice. The third is LSEG B3 Limited, dated 23 Oct 2026.

The three Gate 2 notices were opened on 30 Oct 2026. Each says the firm has passed Gate 2 and is approved as a digital securities depository. Each says the firm may carry out the activities in the notice, in a live environment, subject to the conditions in the notice. None of the three says a security has been issued. The other firms on the dashboard are not listed here. The limits section still showed no figure.

The sandbox's own page was opened again. It is still last updated on 23 Dec 2024, and it still says the sandbox is due to run until 8 Jan 2029.

Technical detail

The 22 Oct record is the one written onto the financial-markets page that day. The names of the firms that were not given a Gate 2 notice were not copied then, and they were not copied on 30 Oct, so this card does not compare those names. The conditions in the notices differ, and they are not copied. The DSS Guidance was not read.

The digital gilt

The Digital Gilt Instrument, or DIGIT, is a government bond that is digital from the start. HM Treasury runs the pilot, and the Bank of England supports it.

The Bank's wholesale page was opened again. It is still last updated on 23 Jul 2026. It still describes the Digital Gilt Instrument as one that will be issued, and it still calls that issuance real but experimentational. It still names no platform and no date. It still says the Bank is committed to a live synchronisation service in 2028. The gilt has not been issued.

No HM Treasury page was read on 22 Oct 2026. Two were opened on 30 Oct 2026, so there is no earlier reading on this site to set them against.

The update of 16 Jul 2026 says the first DIGIT transaction will take place by the first quarter of 2027 on HSBC Orion, and that HSBC was appointed the platform provider in Feb 2026. It says HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group have signed a memorandum of understanding, and that the government expects to list DIGIT on the London Stock Exchange's main market. It does not say a gilt has been issued. The February announcement was not opened.

The news story of 6 Oct 2026 says Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets have been appointed joint lead managers. It says the pilot is expected by the first quarter of 2027. It does not say a gilt has been issued.

Technical detail

The July update says the government intends to lay legislation to amend the sandbox. That legislation was not read. “Investor engagement” is the October page's phrase for the talks that follow the appointment.

Not opened for this edition

The FCA's fund tokenisation statement, PS26/7, was not opened again. Project Meridian Securities was not opened again. Neither is described here as unchanged.

No FCA rule page was opened again. The sentence already on the crypto pages, about when the final rules apply, was not re-read.

The other areas on Where it is used were not opened again. Payments, supply chains, identity, public records, files, energy, healthcare, media and the crypto use page are outside this edition.