Hong Kong RWA Silent Gold Mine: 2.1 Trillion Cross-Border Fund Tokenization, No One Hears the Sound of Wealth Breaking the Ice

Text|RWA Knowledge Circle

Editor|RWA Knowledge Circle

1. Global Giants Enter the Game, Hong Kong Innovates to Break the Game

When Wall Street Giants Establish Institutional First-Mover Advantages in the RWA Tokenization Field Through Tools Such as BUIDL Funds, Hong Kong Simultaneously Starts the Ice-breaking Journey of Standardized Financial Assets in the Retail Market ——

In early 2025, the digital asset financial services group HashKey Group and Bosera Funds (International) Co., Ltd. jointly launched the Hong Kong dollar and US dollar currency market The ETF tokenization scheme has been approved by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong. As one of the earliest tokenized money market ETFs in Asia to be endorsed by regulators, the scheme has been included in the RWA innovation project of the Ensemble regulatory sandbox by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Its operation mode provides a reference for the industry:

Try to combine traditional low-risk funds with blockchain technology to explore compliance paths;
Practice a 24-hour global trading mechanism, and make adjustments in cost compression (about 60%) and investment threshold (HK$10);
Its tokenization model provides a reference template for similar operations of cross-border funds in the Mainland.

Through such projects, Hong Kong sends a signal to the market: the important direction of RWA is to standardize financial assets, but the current market attention is more focused on the tokenization of non-financial assets.

Second, why is there no one digging for the trillion-level gold mine?

When the market's attention is attracted by the tokenization of non-financial assets such as new energy and agricultural products, a real wealth black hole is being collectively

When peers use on-chain settlement to eat up 3 days of cross-border processes, is your capital turnover still struggling on the line of life and death?

When the 0.3% cost structure becomes the new benchmark for the industry in the future, how much profit can your 6% channel fee swallow up?

When the RWA compliance window is rapidly narrowing, will your cross-border finance choose to evolve or die?

Ignore: According to industry estimates, there are more than 2.1 trillion yuan of cross-border investment funds in the mainland (including QDII and other mechanisms). If tokenization is implemented through Hong Kong, the compression of transaction costs and the release of liquidity alone can create an annualized profit space of nearly 300 billion yuan. Standardized financial assets - bonds, funds, REITs - are the ultimate battlefield for RWA. They have the core advantages of transparent valuation and mature compliance framework. Unfortunately, 90% of companies are still watching the "kiwifruit on the chain" and missing out on the BRICS.

Industry breakthroughs from the practice of China Asset Management

In the field of standardized financial RWA, China Asset Management (Hong Kong) conducted a practice in 2024: using money market funds as underlying assets, issuing tokenized funds through Ethereum public chain technology, and presenting some new features in operation:

Try 24-hour global trading to break through the time limit of traditional fund subscription and redemption;
Reducing intermediary links with the help of blockchain automated clearing, reducing costs (about 70%);
This product has gained certain recognition in the market, reflecting the demand of some investors for this type of model.

The cross-border settlement time of its tokenized shares is significantly shorter than the traditional process. This case also indirectly reflects the gradual development of Hong Kong's standardized financial RWA ecosystem.

3. Hong Kong’s regulatory innovation has become a global model

The practical case of China Asset Management and Bosera Fund (International) jointly working on HashKey is based on the regulatory system that Hong Kong has built for RWAs - this system is being used as a reference by financial centers such as Singapore and Dubai:

Transparency of licenses: SFC implements "pre-regulation" on virtual asset platforms, and the information of licensed institutions is updated in real time on the official website;
Seamless legal connection: The amendment to Chapter 571 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance directly includes tokenized assets in the definition of "securities", eliminating compliance ambiguities;
Sandbox industrialization: HKMA's Ensemble project shortens the testing cycle to 45 days (only for Singapore) 1/3), and allow cross-institutional on-chain asset intercommunication;
Risk control trinity: require custodians (such as Standard Chartered Bank), law firms (such as King & Wood Mallesons), and audit firms (such as PwC) to store evidence on the chain simultaneously.

When companies are still worried about RWA compliance risks, Hong Kong's "regulatory-technology-ecological" architecture has provided the industry with a reference trust framework.

Fourth, how can B-side companies seize the opportunity?

Standardized financial assets RWA is by no means the exclusive domain of giants! Any enterprise holding cross-border assets such as bonds and fund shares has the opportunity to enter the track by using Hong Kong as a springboard - but it needs to pass four-fold compliance verification:

Asset screening: Sort out the standardized financial assets held by the enterprise

Sandbox preview: Submit a test application through the HKMA Ensemble official website (the HashKey solution has opened the technical template);

License verification: Require the technical party to present the SFC license number and on-chain audit address;

Liquidity sandbox: Preset a two-way redemption mechanism between tokens and physical assets with licensed exchanges (such as an automatic market-making model linked to US bonds).

Survival countdown: Hong Kong SFC data shows that the number of newly registered RWA funds in Q1 2024 surged 240% year-on-year. Some leading companies have reduced cross-border costs to 0.3% through tokenized funds, but if your company is still trapped in the quagmire of 6% handling fees——

Three fatal questions:

① When peers use on-chain settlement to eat up 3 days of cross-border processes, is your capital turnover still struggling on the line of life and death?

② When the 0.3% cost structure becomes the new benchmark for the industry in the future, how much profit can your 6% channel fee eat up?

③ When the RWA compliance window is rapidly narrowing, will your cross-border finance choose to evolve or die?