Author: Lulululu
It took only more than a year for Hong Kong to go from being the "relic of Asia's financial center" to returning to the global financial center by relying on Hong Kong stock IPOs, the combination of RWA virtual and real, and the hot spots of stablecoins.
In recent years, Hong Kong has gradually become the forefront of RWA (Real World Asset) development through virtual assetspolicy innovation and institutional practice. This article systematically sorts out the policy evolution of Hong Kong's security token STO (Security Token Offering) and RWA, benchmark compliance cases, and the layout of core licensed institutions, revealing the key logic of Hong Kong's compliant RWA ecosystem construction. This article does not include the RWA chain ecosystem or RWA concept projects that have not been approved by the Hong Kong SFC.
Hong Kong RWA Policy Timeline
1. Initial Exploration (2017-2022)
September 2017: The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued the "Statement on Initial Token Offerings", clarifying that security tokens must be licensed.
October 2022: The Hong Kong government issued the "Virtual Asset Policy Declaration" to establish the strategic position of RWA. 2. The regulatory system takes shape (2023-2024) November 2023: SFC allows security tokens to be open to retail investors for subscription and is regulated by the Securities and Futures Ordinance. March 2024: HKMA launches Ensemble project to test green bonds and supply chain finance tokenization scenarios.
December 2024：The Stablecoin Bill will be submitted to the Legislative Council for deliberation, clarifying that the issuance of legal currency stablecoins must be licensed.
3. Deepening innovation (2025 to present)
January 2025：The HKMA launches the "Digital Bond Funding Scheme" to encourage the application of tokenization technology.
March 2025：SFC and HKMA update the "Guidelines on Virtual Asset-Related Activities" to regulate cross-border data and secondary market management.
Key legislation：The "Stablecoin Bill" was passed in May 2025, requiring full custody of fiat stablecoin reserve assets, prohibiting interest payments, and only licensed institutions can sell to retail investors.
Hong Kong RWA Benchmark Case Analysis
1. Taiji Capital Prince Real Estate STO
Issuance Time: September 10, 2023
Issuer: Taiji Capital
Raised Funds: HK$100 million
Underlying assets: Rental income rights of 5 retail properties in Prince Edward, Kowloon
Technical architecture: ERC-1400 standard, traded through HKbitEX platform
Compliance breakthrough: Hong Kong's first real estate security token (STO), obtained SFC No. 4 and No. 9 licenses
Case significance: Opening a precedent for the tokenization of traditional real estate assets on the chain and promoting the development of Hong Kong's STO market
2. Harvest Global Tokenized Fund
Issuance time: December 18, 2023
Issuer: Harvest Global Investments
Amount of funds raised: US$110 million
Underlying assets: Short-term US dollar deposits and money market instruments
Technical architecture: Ethereum smart contract, managed by Standard Chartered Bank’s Libeara platform
Compliance breakthrough: Hong Kong’s first tokenized fund, awarded SFC Type 9 license
Case significance: Asia Pacific’s first institutional-level tokenized fund, with a minimum investment threshold of US$100,000
3. HSBC Gold Token GTP
Issuance time：March 27, 2024
Issuer：HSBC
Amount of funds raised：Undisclosed (retail license covers the entire gold reserve)
Underlying assets：Physical gold bars certified by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and held in a vault in England
Technical architecture：HSBC’s self-developed Orion platform, bridged to the DeFi protocol through Polygon
Compliance breakthrough: Hong Kong's first RWA product to obtain an SFC retail license, circumventing restrictions on virtual asset transactions
Case significance: Realize on-chain segmentation of physical gold (minimum 0.001 ounce), support pledge interest (annualized 4.2%)
4. Langxin Technology New Energy Charging Pile RWA
Issuance time: August 23, 2024
Issuer: Longxin Technology, Ant Digits, UBS Group (Lead Underwriter)
Amount of Funds Raised: RMB 100 million
Underlying Assets: Operating income rights of 9,000 charging piles in China, IoT devices verify electricity bill income in real time
Technical Architecture: ERC-3643 layered tokens, Ant Chain provides blockchain + IoT fusion technology
Compliance Breakthrough：HKMA Ensemble Sandbox's first cross-border RWA case of mainland new energy assets
Case significance：Verify the path of cross-border asset tokenization and raise funds to support small and medium-sized energy storage operators
5. GCL Energy Photovoltaic Power Station RWA
Issuance time：December 23, 2024
Issuer：GCL Energy, Ant Digits
Amount of funds raised：RMB 200 million
Underlying assets：Rights to power generation income from 82MW distributed photovoltaic power stations in Hunan and Hubei
Technical architecture：Dynamic NFT mapping of power station data, Ant Chain Jovay platform supports 100,000 TPS
Compliance breakthrough：Hong Kong's first green bond tokenization project, obtained foreign exchange exemption from Shenzhen's "New Energy Finance Sandbox"
Case significance：Annualized return of 6.8%, dual data verification by satellite remote sensing + ground sensors
6. China Asset Management Hong Kong Dollar Digital Currency Fund (2025)
Issuance time：February 28, 2025
Issuer：Huaxia Fund
Amount of funds raised：US$110 million
Underlying assets：Hong Kong dollar short-term deposits and money market instruments
Technical architecture：Ethereum tokenization, OSL exchange distribution
Compliance breakthrough：The world's largest retail tokenized fund, whitelist mechanism restricts retail transactions
Case Significance: Promote Hong Kong to become the Asia-Pacific retail tokenization fund center
7. Patrol Eagle Travel Battery Swap Asset RWA
Issuance Time: March 15, 2025
Issuer: Patrol Eagle Group, Ant Digits, Hong Kong Victory Securities
Amount of Funds Raised: Tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars
Underlying assets: Operating income rights of 4,000 battery swap cabinets and 40,000 lithium batteries nationwide
Technical architecture: Ant Chain + Conflux public chain real-time chain IoT data, dynamically correct token value
Compliance breakthrough: The world's first battery swap physical asset RWA, cross-border fundraising through Ensemble sandbox
Case significance: Annualized return of 8%, covering high-frequency rider battery swap scenarios
8. CPIC Asset Management Tokenized USD Money Fund
Issuance time: March 18, 2025
Issuer: CPIC Asset Management, HashKey Chain
Amount of funds raised: US$100 million
Underlying assets：USD money market instruments (short-term Treasury bonds, commercial paper)
Technical architecture：HashKey Chain public chain confirmation, Standard Chartered Bank custody
Compliance breakthrough：China-funded institutions' first on-chain money fund
Case significance：Realize T+0 settlement and real-time profit distribution, and activate institutional capital chain circulation
9. Solowin real-return token RYT
Full analysis of the strategic layout of licensed institutions
1. Internet giants: technology empowerment and license integration
Ant Group
Technical architecture: Leading the "two chains and one bridge" platform, supporting dynamic NFT and 100,000 TPS high-concurrency transactions.
Representative cases: GCL Energy Photovoltaic Power Station RWA, Patrol Eagle Battery Exchange Asset RWA.
Compliance path: Participating in the Ensemble sandbox test of the HKMA.
JD Technology
Strategic positioning: Focus on stablecoins (JD-HKD) and tokenization of new energy assets, and plan to issue RWA for photovoltaic power stations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai (target fundraising of 500 million yuan).
Technical architecture: Ethereum Layer2+Conflux cross-chain bridge.
Compliance path: JD-HKD enters the stablecoin sandbox test of the HKMA.
2. Exchange system: infrastructure and liquidity support
HashKey Group
Strategic positioning: Licensed virtual asset service provider (VATP license), leading tokenized ETF and public chain infrastructure, as well as the construction of Wanxiang Web3 Carnival industry-level summit.
OSL Exchange
Taiji Capital (HKbitEX)
Strategic positioning: Hong Kong's first licensed trading platform for STO and RWA concepts, focusing on real estate STO and secondary market transactions.
Representative case: Prince Real Estate STO (raising HK$100 million).
3. Brokerage firms: business innovation and compliance transformation
Tiger Securities
Strategic positioning: Through its subsidiary YAX, it holds a VASP license and provides crypto asset pledge financing services (LTV up to 50%).
Technical architecture: Smart contract automated liquidation, supporting multi-chain asset pledge.
Futu Securities
Strategic positioning: Top 1 Internet brokerage in Hong Kong, reuses SFC No. 1/4/9 licenses to embed encryption services, supports BTC/ETH deposits and withdrawals and stock-to-currency account interoperability.
Representative cases: The first-day crypto asset trading volume exceeded US$400 million.
Guotai Junan International
Victory Securities
Fosun Wealth Holdings
4. Asset management fund companies: product innovation and asset chain
China Asset Management
Strategic positioning: Issue the first retail tokenized fund in Asia Pacific (Hong Kong dollar digital currency fund, raising US$110 million) in 2025, and deploy virtual asset ETFs in 2024.
Technical architecture: Issued on the Ethereum chain and distributed by the OSL exchange.
Pacific Insurance Asset Management (PICA)
Strategic Positioning: The first Chinese insurance asset management company to enter the market, and will cooperate with HashKey to issue a tokenized US dollar money fund in 2025.
Compliance Path: Obtained SFC No. 9 license, supporting T+0 settlement and real-time profit distribution.
Harvest Global
5. Traditional Banks: Stablecoins and Asset Custody
Standard Chartered Bank
Strategic Positioning: Work with Hong Kong Telecom and Animoca to develop Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKD, and custody RWA products such as China Asset Management.
Technical Architecture: Ethereum Layer2 expansion plan, with reserve assets isolated and stored in the England vault.
HSBC
Strategic Positioning: Launch of retail-grade gold token GTP, with a minimum trading unit of 0.001 ounce and an annualized staking return of 4.2%.
Technical Architecture: Self-developed Orion platform + Polygon cross-chain bridge, real-time anchoring of London gold prices.
6. Other licensed participants
BOCI
Core business: Cross-border trade letter of credit blockchain pilot, participation in the HKMA Ensemble project.
License: SFC No. 1/6 license.
Hang Seng Bank
Core business：Initial member of the Ensemble project, supporting electronic bill of lading tokenized trade financing.
License：Bank license approved by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Through policy iteration and institutional practice, Hong Kong has built the core framework of the RWA ecosystem. With the deepening of technology and the improvement of supervision, it may become the core hub of the global tokenized asset flow. Major institutions will jointly form a closed loop of green energy and real estate assets, with the goal of breaking through the scale of tokenization of 16 trillion US dollars in 2030. Disclaimer: Please strictly abide by the laws and regulations of your location. This article does not represent any investment advice.
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