How does RDA make real-world data profitable?

Real Data Assets (RDA), as an innovative asset form, are reshaping the value-added path of data elements. The RDA paradigm proposed by the Shanghai Data Exchange in 2025 is not only an exploration of the transformation of data from resources to capital, but also a practice of promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy under China's "real number fusion" strategy. This article will start with the origin, core mechanisms, current development status and related concept stocks of RDA, deeply analyzing its unique value and looking forward to its future potential. The Origin of RDA: A New Paradigm for Data Valuation in China In 2025, the Shanghai Data Exchange (SDE) first proposed the concept of RDA in its publication, "RDA: Exploring the Valuation of Data Elements," led by General Manager Tang Qifeng and Vice President of the Research Institute Lü Zhengying. This paradigm aligns with the national strategy of "new quality productivity" and the marketization of data elements. It aims to deeply integrate physical assets with operational data through technologies such as blockchain and the Internet of Things, creating a new type of asset unit that is "identifiable, tradable, and bankable." Unlike global real-world assets (RWAs), which focus on asset tokenization, RDA emphasizes data authenticity verification and value enhancement, creating a unique path for "real-data integration."

SSE positions RDA as the core engine for data value creation, using blockchain technology to encapsulate the full lifecycle data of physical assets into standardized, tradable digital assets. ... officially launched the RDA paradigm at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival in April 2025, marking the transition of data from back-end resources to front-end assets, with standardized pathways for entry, registration, valuation, trading, and financing.

In July of the same year, several Shanghai exchanges held a closed-door seminar on "New Opportunities in the Capital Market: RDA," attracting financial institutions such as Guotai Junan Securities, Haitong Securities, and CITIC Construction Investment Securities to discuss the application prospects of RDA in the capital market, laying a solid foundation for the implementation of subsequent projects.

RDA's Core Mechanism: From Data to "Golden Assets"

RDA's core lies in leveraging technology to transform data into trustworthy, tradable assets. Its operational mechanism covers three stages: asset preparation, asset issuance, and asset trading. During the asset preparation phase, the Data Assets Shell (DAS) encapsulates operational and revenue data of physical assets into standardized digital assets, with built-in proof of ownership, transaction protocols, and asset management models. Blockchain technology ensures data immutability, while the three-party separation of powers structure and judicial evidence storage channels further guarantee data authenticity. During the asset issuance phase, data service providers and financial institutions complete asset on-chain and financial token issuance under regulatory review, ensuring that the data meets the requirements of "golden assets." In the asset trading stage, data assets are circulated through domestic and foreign capital markets, creating value for enterprises.

RDA supports multiple financing channels and provides enterprises with new sources of funds:

• Credit financing：Shanghai Stock Exchange and financial institutions jointly launched "Digital Easy Loan", with a credit amount of more than 100 million yuan in 2024, providing enterprises with low-cost financing support.

• Equity financing: Using data assets as capital to exchange for company equity and achieve capitalization operations.

• Securitization: Through data asset ABS (asset-backed securities), securities are issued with future cash flows to convert data into equity value.

• Global Fundraising: Connecting with overseas capital markets and attracting foreign investment to support the development of domestic real economy.

RDA's five major features highlight its unique value: First,

real number fusiondata and physical assets are deeply bound to form a new type of asset form; Second,

real and transparent , blockchain technology enables trusted traceability of assets throughout their entire life cycle; third, credible returns: smart contracts connect real operating returns to ensure transparent distribution; fourth, value reconstruction: leveraging the low marginal cost and reusability of data, combined with the capital market to amplify asset value; fifth, ecological collaboration. , integrating the data market and the capital market to build an open value ecosystem. These characteristics make RDA a bridge connecting the real economy and financial capital, providing enterprises with innovative financing paths.

The Development of RDA: A Leap from Theory to Practice

Since its proposal in 2025, RDA has rapidly moved from theoretical conception to practical application, demonstrating strong development momentum.

As a national "test field" for the marketization of data elements, Shanghai, with policy support, has become a core area for the implementation of RDA.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHSE) is promoting the application of RDA in various fields through cross-sector collaboration and pilot projects. Here are a few representative projects: Steel Trade RDA: Shanghai Steel Union (300226.SZ), a global leader in commodity data pricing, with over 70% global market share, has issued the "STEEL-CNY" stablecoin for the steel trade chain through the SHSE platform. This project leverages blockchain technology to encapsulate steel transaction data, supporting trade settlement and receivables splitting. This reduces commission costs to 0.15%, potentially generating over 1 billion yuan in annual commission revenue. Shipping Data RDA: COSCO Shipping Technology (002401.SZ) leverages its monopoly on shipping data. Its "Shipstache" platform covers over 5,000 ports. The data valuation has increased by three times through RDA, supporting the "Cargo Treasure CNY" stablecoin to achieve real-time RMB settlement of Southeast Asian freight rates, with an estimated annual transaction volume of 50 billion yuan. Data Asset ABS: On August 21, 2025, the first data asset-enabled ABS was successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Shanghai Stock Exchange provided full-chain support, including compliance reviews, a scientific and rigorous valuation system, and cross-market linkage mechanisms, ensuring a seamless transition from project preparation to listing. This marks a breakthrough in the application of RDA in the financial market.

On July 22, the unveiling ceremony of the "Equipment Operation and Intelligent Computing Center" jointly established by Hainan Huatie and Shanghai Data Exchange was held in Shanghai, and it was announced that the world's first equipment operation RDA project would be launched, with an estimated issuance scale of 1 billion yuan. This marks that the two parties have reached in-depth cooperation in the fields of data element circulation, equipment operation, and intelligent computing power services, and jointly explored new paths for data-driven industrial upgrading.

The following is a comprehensive review of RDA-related concept stocks, covering data element infrastructure and technical support, trading platforms and blockchain technology, scenario applications and asset tokenization, as well as high-elasticity potential targets

Data element infrastructure and technical support

Ehualu (300212.SZ)：A data lake operator with a background in state-owned enterprises, it stores over 100PB of government and medical data. It has issued the first government data asset certificate in China, and its data asset balance sheet size is expected to exceed 500 million yuan in 2025.

Sanwei Tiandi (301159.SZ)：A certified service provider of several major stock exchanges, AI-driven data automatic labeling efficiency has increased by 80%, participated in the formulation of RDA data packaging standards, and supported the Yangtze River Delta cross-border data assetization pilot.

Trading platform and blockchain technology：

• Shanghai Steel Union (300226.SZ)

• GRG Banking (002152.SZ) : The third largest shareholder of the Guangzhou Data Exchange (holding 15%), with digital RMB hardware terminals covering 2,000+ banks, over 20 tons of tokenized gold certificates in storage, and a new energy asset tokenization project has been implemented.

• Sifang Jingchuang (300468.SZ)：A blockchain cross-border payment technology provider, supporting RDA cross-border circulation, with a transaction processing speed of 100,000 TPS, providing technical support for the globalization of data assets.

Scenario application and asset tokenization：

• COSCO (002401.SZ)

• Visual China (000681.SZ)：It has the world's largest visual copyright library (270 million images), and NFT-based rights confirmation improves liquidity. The gross profit margin of the copyright transaction sharing model exceeds 70%, and it is exploring the RDA-based sharing mechanism for visual data.

• Century Hengtong (301428.SZ): Focus on data services, participate in RDA-related data assetization pilot projects, and provide data processing and transaction support.

High elastic potential target：

• Yunsai Zhilian (600602.SH)

• Sinosig (002912.SZ)：Data collection coverage exceeds 80% (ETC and traffic flow), with outstanding RDA data source supply capabilities. Technically, the stock has the potential to increase by over 50% after breaking through the annual line.

• Shanghai Material Trade (600822.SH): Its subsidiary Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Exchange's data products are registered and listed on several stock exchanges, and its stock price has risen for four consecutive days. However, its total revenue in 2024 was 4.517 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 42.59%. Data asset trading contributed less than 1%. The dynamic price-earnings ratio was as high as 126.57 times, far exceeding the industry average (the average for trading companies and industrial product distributors is 19.30 times), reflecting that the market's enthusiasm is more due to the expectation of policy dividends. The capital market's enthusiasm for RDA reflects its potential, but it also carries the risk of high valuations. For example, Shanghai Material Trade's high price-to-earnings ratio suggests that the market's embrace of RDA is based more on policy dividends than fundamental support. RDA's internationalization efforts are also steadily progressing. The Shanghai Stock Exchange's International Zone has become a key platform for cross-border data exchange, attracting over 30 international data vendors and listing nearly 200 data products. This zone has pioneered an "international data brokerage model," introducing resources such as Stream Hatchet's esports data analysis and Speeda's global supply chain intelligence, while also helping local companies export data in compliance with regulations. Through partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Neudata, and others, a robust "technology interface + data vendor network" architecture has been established, supporting seamless data transfer and empowering RDA to play a greater role in global data assetization. The Future of RDA: Opportunities and Challenges As a key engine for data monetization, RDA offers a new path for financing physical assets. However, its development still faces several challenges. First, RDA's transaction scale is relatively small, its business model is not yet fully mature, and it is highly dependent on policy support and ecosystem collaboration. For example, Shanghai Material Trade's RDA business is constrained by the external ecosystem, making it difficult to significantly increase revenue in the short term. Second, data ownership confirmation, standardization, and pricing mechanisms still need to be improved, and cross-border circulation must balance domestic and international regulatory requirements. In addition, the implementation of the RDA project requires cross-industry collaboration and involves coordination among multiple parties such as technology, compliance and market, which increases the complexity of implementation.

  Despite this, the future potential of RDA cannot be ignored. With the continuous improvement of the real number integration system, RDA is expected to achieve breakthroughs in the following directions:

  • Industry expansion: From bulk commodities and shipping to smart manufacturing, logistics, medical care and other fields, covering more real economy scenarios.

  • Financial Innovation: Explore more data asset ABS, equity financing and other models to release the value of data and broaden corporate financing channels.

  • International Development: Promote the global circulation of RDA through docking with international financial markets and attract more foreign investment support for domestic enterprises.

  Conclusion

  As an innovative practice in the marketization of data elements in China, RDA is not only an exploration of the path to data value creation, but also a profound response to the integration of the real economy and the digital economy. From its theoretical proposal in 2025 to the implementation of the project today, RDA transforms real data into "gold assets" through trusted technologies such as blockchain, providing enterprises with new financing channels. RDA concept stocks have become the focus of capital market attention due to their layout in areas such as data sources, technical services, and trading platforms. Despite facing challenges such as small transaction volumes and immature business models, RDA is gradually unleashing its potential, driven by policy support and technological advancement. In the future, RDA is expected to become a key force in data-driven economic transformation, contributing Chinese wisdom to the global wave of asset digitization and injecting strong momentum into the development of new-quality productivity.