TOKENISED GREEN BONDS IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE AMD THE FORMATION OF THE GREENIUM

Abstract

This article develops a greenium-centred analytical framework for tokenised green bonds and explains when tokenisation can influence green bond pricing rather than merely digitising issuance. The framework treats the greenium as a fragile equilibrium outcome shaped by three interacting channels: (i) liquidity and market microstructure, including settlement finality and interoperability with mainstream custody and post-trade arrangements; (ii) credibility of green claims, driven by the cost and quality of verification, disclosure integrity, and the auditability of allocation and impact evidence; and (iii) lifecycle frictions embedded in issuance, servicing, reporting, and assurance. By linking these channels to a tiered architecture – legal governance, registry and custody, settlement (including the “cash leg”), and a disclosure-data-attestation stack – the article clarifies why many tokenisation pilots fail to translate operational innovation into pricing effects. Evidence from sovereign and corporate cases is used to illustrate channel activation: Hong Kong’s repeated, multi-currency digital green bond issuances demonstrate the importance of scalability and investor accessibility for reducing novelty-related liquidity discounts. In contrast, corporate initiatives highlight the roles of legally recognised registers and data-centric reporting infrastructures. The analysis further discusses the relevance of monetary surrogates, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies as potential settlement assets enabling delivery-versus-payment in tokenised securities markets. For Ukraine’s reconstruction-oriented sustainable finance agenda, the framework implies that tokenisation is most justified where it strengthens verifiable transparency, reduces verification and reporting burdens, and preserves interoperability with established capital-market infrastructure. The article presents a coherent market-design perspective that integrates financial engineering, structured finance, and digital asset infrastructure into a sustainable analysis of debt pricing.