Based on the listed companies with substantial bond defaults from 2015 to 2019, this paper uses binary Probit regression model to study the impact of major shareholder equity pledge on the bond default risk of listed companies from the perspective of risk-taking level. The data reveals that the equity pledge rate of major shareholders is positively correlated with the risk of bond default, and the risk-taking level plays an intermediary role between equity pledge and bond default. Enterprises with high equity pledge rate increase the risk of bond default by influencing their risk-taking level. This paper further studies the influence of the nature of the property right and information quality differences on the relationship between equity pledge and bond default. The results show that there are differences in the positive effects of equity pledge ratio on bond default among groups with different property rights and different levels of information quality, and the positive effects are much stronger in non-state-owned enterprises and low information quality groups.