In the past few days, the media clash between HashKey and OSL has once again brought the Hong Kong virtual asset ecosystem into the spotlight: 10 licensed trading platforms have been issued licenses, while 8 are still in the queue, yet there are very few that have truly generated traffic and depth. Even more embarrassing is that the much-anticipated RWA (Real World Assets) tokenization has come to a standstill after completing three trial transactions; most licensed platforms can only rely on OTC business to make ends meet, but their income is barely enough.
The licensing dividends have yet to be realized, and product innovation is struggling to make progress. The RWA route in Hong Kong is facing a collective interrogation of “where to go from here”. Could this be a failed new financial pilot?
(ChatGPT raw image)
Core conclusion first: Hong Kong’s current RWA experiment will not “fail”, but if it continues to stay in the single-line thinking of “issuing bonds = financing”, it will inevitably be squeezed from both sides by Wall Street’s standardization wave and Southeast Asia’s multi-layered capital network. The only way out is to return to infrastructure, deepen the institutional market, amplify offshore advantages, and shape an Asia-Pacific on-chain asset hub.
Pain Point Manufacturing:
· Narrow asset side - only accommodates qualified new energy bonds, ignoring cash flow assets such as logistics warehousing, AI computing centers, and precious metal mines.
· High cost of funds - USD cost 10%+, project starting at 30 million USD, discouraging small and medium enterprises;
· Infrastructure shortage - public chains, custody, and Oracles rely solely on a single alliance chain;
· Market education is lacking - The asset side and the funding side have not yet completed market education, and third-party institutions such as brokers, auditors, and market makers are not yet systematic. Meanwhile, the RWA business of licensed trading platforms has not yet started, and is primarily sustained by OTC.
Although Hong Kong follows Wall Street’s lead, during a recent period of low BTC prices, the net inflow of ETFs in the US was $260 million; meanwhile, during the same period, the subscription and redemption of ETFs in Hong Kong was zero.
Solution (Three Steps)
Do not be confused and polluted by various information channels; the path to quality assets in the mainland can only follow this offshore financial structure:
This multi-tiered capital market structure avoids the bottleneck of single-point regulation, allowing for cross-domain arbitrage of funds and assets, which in turn feeds back into the primary market in Hong Kong, forming a positive cycle.
RWA is not just about bond financing, nor is it pre-financing; good asset packages do not lack suitable funding.
The returns on high-value agricultural products are not low, and the policy regulatory tolerance is very high.
Agricultural RWA provides incremental stories, opening a new track of “green finance + rural revitalization” for Hong Kong.
Build RWA infrastructure for Web2.5 using the approach of Web3.0 infrastructure.
· HKD stablecoin - linking to the internationalization of the Renminbi (reserve asset - offshore Renminbi), becoming the settlement anchor for the Hong Kong dollar;
· Layer2 public chain - supporting the tokenization of Hong Kong stocks and RWA infrastructure;
· Licensed Trading Platform Alliance DEX - Establish a liquidity alliance, share market making depth, and bridge Hong Kong stocks with crypto stocks;
· OTC & Custody - Connecting institutional cold wallets, family offices, and offshore funds for financial institutions in Hong Kong;
· DePIN+AI Agent - Abandon the erroneous path of “digitalization - on-chain - tokenization” and directly generate on-chain distributed assets based on infrastructure, forming a traceable distributed asset data network.
The failure lies not in the concept, but in the single-threaded “debt issuance-financing logic.” If Hong Kong wishes to maintain its status as a new financial center in the era of RWA, it must upgrade from “replicating Wall Street” to a three-dimensional battlefield of “integrating mainland assets + offshore funds + on-chain infrastructure.” When HKD stablecoins, Layer 2 settlements, and cross-domain ATS take shape, Hong Kong will transform from a “follower” into a “hub for on-chain assets in the Asia-Pacific,” truly completing, deepening, and expanding the RWA narrative.
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In the past few days, the media clash between HashKey and OSL has once again brought the Hong Kong virtual asset ecosystem into the spotlight: 10 licensed trading platforms have been issued licenses, while 8 are still in the queue, yet there are very few that have truly generated traffic and depth. Even more embarrassing is that the much-anticipated RWA (Real World Assets) tokenization has come to a standstill after completing three trial transactions; most licensed platforms can only rely on OTC business to make ends meet, but their income is barely enough.
The licensing dividends have yet to be realized, and product innovation is struggling to make progress. The RWA route in Hong Kong is facing a collective interrogation of “where to go from here”. Could this be a failed new financial pilot?
(ChatGPT raw image)
Core conclusion first: Hong Kong’s current RWA experiment will not “fail”, but if it continues to stay in the single-line thinking of “issuing bonds = financing”, it will inevitably be squeezed from both sides by Wall Street’s standardization wave and Southeast Asia’s multi-layered capital network. The only way out is to return to infrastructure, deepen the institutional market, amplify offshore advantages, and shape an Asia-Pacific on-chain asset hub.
Pain Point Manufacturing:
· Narrow asset side - only accommodates qualified new energy bonds, ignoring cash flow assets such as logistics warehousing, AI computing centers, and precious metal mines.
· High cost of funds - USD cost 10%+, project starting at 30 million USD, discouraging small and medium enterprises;
· Infrastructure shortage - public chains, custody, and Oracles rely solely on a single alliance chain;
· Market education is lacking - The asset side and the funding side have not yet completed market education, and third-party institutions such as brokers, auditors, and market makers are not yet systematic. Meanwhile, the RWA business of licensed trading platforms has not yet started, and is primarily sustained by OTC.
Although Hong Kong follows Wall Street’s lead, during a recent period of low BTC prices, the net inflow of ETFs in the US was $260 million; meanwhile, during the same period, the subscription and redemption of ETFs in Hong Kong was zero.
Solution (Three Steps)
Do not be confused and polluted by various information channels; the path to quality assets in the mainland can only follow this offshore financial structure:
This multi-tiered capital market structure avoids the bottleneck of single-point regulation, allowing for cross-domain arbitrage of funds and assets, which in turn feeds back into the primary market in Hong Kong, forming a positive cycle.
RWA is not just about bond financing, nor is it pre-financing; good asset packages do not lack suitable funding.
The returns on high-value agricultural products are not low, and the policy regulatory tolerance is very high.
Agricultural RWA provides incremental stories, opening a new track of “green finance + rural revitalization” for Hong Kong.
Build RWA infrastructure for Web2.5 using the approach of Web3.0 infrastructure.
· HKD stablecoin - linking to the internationalization of the Renminbi (reserve asset - offshore Renminbi), becoming the settlement anchor for the Hong Kong dollar;
· Layer2 public chain - supporting the tokenization of Hong Kong stocks and RWA infrastructure;
· Licensed Trading Platform Alliance DEX - Establish a liquidity alliance, share market making depth, and bridge Hong Kong stocks with crypto stocks;
· OTC & Custody - Connecting institutional cold wallets, family offices, and offshore funds for financial institutions in Hong Kong;
· DePIN+AI Agent - Abandon the erroneous path of “digitalization - on-chain - tokenization” and directly generate on-chain distributed assets based on infrastructure, forming a traceable distributed asset data network.
The failure lies not in the concept, but in the single-threaded “debt issuance-financing logic.” If Hong Kong wishes to maintain its status as a new financial center in the era of RWA, it must upgrade from “replicating Wall Street” to a three-dimensional battlefield of “integrating mainland assets + offshore funds + on-chain infrastructure.” When HKD stablecoins, Layer 2 settlements, and cross-domain ATS take shape, Hong Kong will transform from a “follower” into a “hub for on-chain assets in the Asia-Pacific,” truly completing, deepening, and expanding the RWA narrative.