How Tokenised Sovereign Bonds Could Reshape Emerging Debt Markets

Sovereign issuers in emerging markets face a structural problem: their buyer base is narrow, concentrated, and prone to withdrawing at precisely the moment funding is most needed.

Tokenised issuance addresses two frictions at once. Atomic settlement removes counterparty exposure during the settlement window, and fractional denominations open participation to buyers for whom the conventional minimum is prohibitive.

Several pilots have now cleared primary issuance. The unresolved question is secondary liquidity, which remains thin enough that price discovery is unreliable.

For Pakistan, the diaspora is the obvious constituency. Remittance channels already move significant volume; directing a portion into sovereign paper is a question of distribution rather than demand.