The world's largest bank in terms of total assets is looking into the possibility of adding digital currencies to their portfolio, but it is doing so very carefully. HSBC does not currently handle cryptocurrencies for any purpose; in fact, the bank does not recommend them to their investment clients because of their high volatility, but this is something that could change in the future. HSBC recently announced that it will participate in a project involving a project with 21 other banks that will conduct trade financing on a blockchain-based platform. The bank will also look at the potential of integrating cryptocurrencies into their operations; the bank is specifically looking at digital currencies that can be used for certain purposes, but executives are also evaluating them as an asset class. One of the problems that HSBC sees with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is that they are highly speculative instruments, and the bank is not interested in such assets. Nonetheless, HSBC recognizes that digital currencies have managed to attract many investors and build substantial capitalization in just a few years. For major international banks such as HSBC, dealing in cryptocurrencies is a risky proposition. Earlier this year, the Bank of England sent a letter to bank executives urging them to be careful with their plans to adopt digital currencies; the problem that the regulator sees with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that they have gained a bad reputation and are prone to fraud and manipulation. For Josh Bottomley, Global Director of Digital Strategy at HSBC, cryptocurrencies have great potential and could become the future of finance, but he also thinks that many of the digital tokens being traded these days are not yet useful because the financial services that they can support have not yet been developed. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, is ready to be safely implemented now, and many banks have already done so.