Token economics is opening up the process of technological progress, long considered a "black box" in economics, making the way knowledge participates in value creation observable and measurable for the first time. Currently, a series of emerging questions surrounding the token economy call for forward-looking theoretical responses. Following the publication of our series of reports and a call for papers on token economics, we have received an enthusiastic response from our readers, including a large number of high-quality submissions. The research perspectives in these submissions are diverse, reflecting that token economics, as a new form of intelligent economy, has garnered widespread attention from both academia and industry. Given the limited space in the print edition and to enhance the timeliness of research publication, we are launching the "Token Economics Research" column on our WeChat public account, selecting and publishing some outstanding submissions and subsequent series articles. This initiative aims to pool wisdom from all sides to provide an analytical framework and decision-making reference for industrial practice and policy governance in the intelligent era. Please stay tuned!
Focusing on Building the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Xiong'an) Global Token Economy Core Zone
Currently, artificial intelligence is reshaping the global economic landscape at an unprecedented pace. The 2026 Government Work Report first proposed "building a new form of intelligent economy." Liu Liehong, Director of the National Data Administration, designated the Chinese translation of Token as "词元" (Ciyuan), positioning it as the "value anchor of the intelligent era" and the "settlement unit connecting technology supply and commercial demand." NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang introduced the concept of "Token Factory Economics" at the GTC conference, stating directly that "Tokens are the hard currency of the AI era." Computing power economy, token economy, and intelligent economy are becoming a new "trinity" paradigm for economic development.
A token (Token) is the basic unit for processing information in large language models and an important metric for measuring the quality of digital economy development. Liu Liehong disclosed at the China Development Forum on March 23, 2026, that China's average daily token call volume surged from 100 billion in early 2024 to 100 trillion by the end of 2025, exceeding 140 trillion by March 2026, representing growth of over a thousandfold in two years. The latest data from OpenRouter shows that for the week of April 27 to May 3, 2026, China's weekly call volume for large models reached 7.94 trillion Tokens, a sharp increase of 81.7% week-over-week, regaining the lead after two weeks. JPMorgan Chase predicts that China's annual compound growth rate for token consumption from 2025 to 2030 will be as high as 330%, a 400-fold increase over five years.
However, the global token market is still in a "regulatory vacuum," with no unified trading standards, pricing systems, or regulatory frameworks yet established. The European Commission announced on April 29 its intention to expand the scope of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to cover the AI sector. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission established an innovation task force in March, making AI a key focus for derivatives market regulation. Missing this strategic window could lead to a repeat of losing pricing power for commodities, resulting in a passive follower position in the global value chain of the AI era.
Facing this historic opportunity, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as a major national strategic area, must leverage its unique positioning and role as an international science and technology innovation center, a world-class city cluster, a national driver of high-quality development, and a demonstration zone for Chinese-style modernization. It urgently needs to cultivate new advantages in this emerging field. Building on the combined strengths of Beijing's R&D, Hebei's green electricity, Tianjin's finance, and Xiong'an's institutional advantages, a forward-looking layout for the token economy and the creation of a global token economy core zone are not only essential for serving national strategy but also a crucial move to seize global industrial discourse power in the AI era.
01. Strategic Situation: A Fleeting Window of Opportunity
The global AI industry is undergoing a strategic transition from "computing power competition" to "token competition." As the basic unit for processing information in large models, tokens are becoming new core strategic resources alongside land, energy, and data. The essence of this competition is the struggle for pricing power and rule-making authority over tokens—the "oil" of the AI era. Whoever masters token pricing power will control the industrial discourse power of the AI era.
It is noteworthy that the competitive landscape for tokens between China and the U.S. is in a period of intense fluctuation. OpenRouter data shows that for the week of April 13 to 19, 2026, China's model call volume dropped to 4.44 trillion, surpassed by the U.S. (4.91 trillion) for the first time in nearly two months. However, in the latest week, China regained the lead with 7.94 trillion Tokens, a sharp increase of 81.7% week-over-week. This intense "catch-up" dynamic precisely illustrates that the window of opportunity is fleeting, making it particularly urgent to seize the initiative. In this strategic game concerning national destiny, falling behind by one step means lagging further, while gaining a step ahead creates a continuous advantage.
From a regulatory perspective, the global token market has yet to establish unified standards. The European Commission announced on April 29, 2026, its intention to expand the scope of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to cover cloud services and the AI sector, focusing investigations on whether Amazon and Microsoft's cloud computing services act as "gatekeepers" and reviewing AI service classifications. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) established an innovation task force in March 2026, making artificial intelligence and autonomous systems a key focus for derivatives market supervision. These developments indicate that major economies have recognized the strategic value of tokens and are accelerating their rule-making efforts. If China misses this window, it risks falling into a passive follower position in the global value chain of the AI era.
The combined advantages of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Xiong'an) region present a globally rare combination of "ultra-large-scale computing power + green electricity resources + financial innovation + institutional pioneering." Hebei is home to China's only national-level renewable energy demonstration zone—Zhangjiakou. By the end of 2025, its cumulative installed capacity of new energy exceeded 43 million kilowatts, accounting for over 88% of the city's total power generation capacity, consistently leading the country in non-hydropower renewable energy development. Green electricity resources are the "ballast stone" for computing power costs and the core competitiveness for building zero-carbon token production bases. The chain of using Zhangjiakou's green electricity to support computing power, computing power to generate tokens, and tokens to drive the intelligent economy is precisely the core logic of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei token economy.
Beijing aggregates world-class AI R&D resources, with top universities like Tsinghua and Peking University and leading companies like ByteDance and Baidu concentrated there, giving it irreplaceable advantages in token technology standard-setting and large model development. Tianjin's computing power industry is accelerating into the "fast lane," with daily token call volume growing from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Big Data Base in Wuqing District plans to deploy approximately 38,700 standard racks, which upon completion will become one of the leading intelligent computing data center clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The "Tianjin City Computing Power Scheduling Comprehensive Service Platform" has been launched, integrating the city's intelligent and supercomputing resources, providing crucial support for coordinated computing power scheduling in the region.
Xiong'an, as a national-level new area, a new-era innovation highland, and a model for high-quality development, enjoys the right to pioneer institutional innovation. It has accumulated rich experience in market-based allocation of data factors and digital yuan pilot programs, providing fertile institutional ground for building a token trading and settlement center. With coordinated efforts from all four areas, there is a full opportunity to establish the world's first token pricing center before the window of opportunity closes.
Local practices are rapidly advancing, accelerating the evolution of the competitive landscape. Guangzhou launched the nation's first city-level comprehensive computing power operation service platform based on "token"-level scheduling in April 2026, connecting 14 organizations and managing over 16,000 Petaflops of computing resources. Hefei, Wuhu, and other cities have introduced "token services," providing developers with one-stop large language model API call capabilities. Ulanqab is accelerating the development of a "Token Capital" by leveraging the strategic opportunity of the "East Data, West Computing" project. These practices provide valuable references for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei token economy construction and also highlight the urgency of seizing the initiative and taking the lead in planning.
02. Strategic Positioning: One Core Leading, Four Areas Coordinating
Using Xiong'an as a hub, build the world's first token pricing center, establish pricing discourse power in the Asia-Pacific region, gradually lead in setting international standards, and create a globally leading innovation source and industrial cluster for the token economy. In terms of functional layout, construct "Three Major Centers": First, an Innovation Source Center, relying on Beijing's universities, research institutes, and leading enterprises to lead the formulation of token technology standards, quality certification systems, and ethical norms, seizing the technological high ground. Second, a Production and Supply Center, leveraging the Hebei Zhangjiakou-Chengde-Langfang-Baoding data center cluster and green electricity advantages to build the world's largest, lowest-cost zero-carbon token production base. Third, a Trading and Settlement Center, utilizing Xiong'an's institutional advantages to build a global token trading ecosystem integrating trading, clearing, warehousing, and index publishing. The four areas have clear divisions of labor: Beijing focuses on "R&D" and "Strategy," leading the formulation of a series of standards such as token encoding, quality grading, and security certification, and promoting their internationalization, establishing token engineering technology research centers at universities like Tsinghua and Peking University. Hebei focuses on "Production" and "Supply," with the Zhangjiakou Renewable Energy Demonstration Zone at its core, promoting the "Source-Grid-Load-Storage Integration" model and direct green electricity supply, forming a tiered supply system with large-scale production from "General Token Factories" coexisting with customized services from "Industry Token Workshops." Tianjin focuses on "Finance" and "Trade," leveraging the advantages of its comprehensive computing power scheduling service platform to achieve coordinated scheduling of computing power resources in the region, and utilizing free trade zone policies to provide cross-border settlement and capital channels for offshore token warehouses. Xiong'an focuses on "Exchange" and "Settlement," building a global token trading center, publishing the "Xiong'an Token Price Index," establishing a central counterparty clearing mechanism, and connecting with digital yuan pilot programs.
03. Strategic Path: Six Major Projects
First, the Deepening of Coordinated Mechanisms Project. Construct a cross-regional value chain division of labor characterized by "innovation registration in Beijing, production and application in Hebei, financial services in Tianjin, and trading and settlement in Xiong'an." Innovate the "enclave economy" model, supporting Beijing-based AI enterprises in establishing "enclave" production bases in Hebei, and exploring cross-regional GDP and tax-sharing mechanisms. Implement plans like "Weekend Engineers" and "Migratory Talent," establishing green channels for high-end talent from Beijing to work in Xiong'an and Hebei. Core intellectual property rights are jointly held by the four parties, with benefits dynamically distributed based on contribution, stimulating collaborative enthusiasm.
Second, the Trading Platform Construction Project. Different from traditional data exchanges trading "static raw data," the Xiong'an Token Trading Center focuses on trading "computing power derivatives" (i.e., standardized outputs from data processed by models), directly addressing the rigid demand of the AI industry and effectively avoiding the complex issue of raw data ownership verification. Launch multi-level products such as standard general token contracts, industry-specific token packages, and token futures/options. Establish offshore token warehouses, implementing a "first-tier liberalization, second-tier control" policy, allowing foreign enterprises to store, trade, and settle within the warehouses using offshore renminbi or digital yuan, forming a coordinated model of "Xiong'an Warehouse + Tianjin Finance." Regularly publish the "Xiong'an Token Price Index," gradually building it into a pricing benchmark for the Asia-Pacific region.
Third, the Green Production Base Project. Relying on the Zhangbei-Xiong'an ultra-high voltage power line, promote a point-to-point direct green electricity supply model of "power plant—grid—computing center," signing long-term green power purchase agreements. Grant a "Zero-Carbon Token" label to tokens produced using Hebei's green electricity, containing complete information such as token ID, production location, green power source, and carbon reduction amount. These tokens enjoy incentives like reduced transaction fees and priority display on the trading center, forming a significant green premium. Prioritize the allocation of new computing power indicators for token production, deploying ultra-large-scale intelligent computing centers in areas like Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Langfang, and Baoding.
Fourth, the Infrastructure Strengthening Project. Build a dedicated Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei computing power network, covering major data centers in the three regions and the Xiong'an Trading Center, using direct fiber optic connections to achieve low-latency, high-bandwidth, and high-security computing power scheduling and token transmission. Construct a token data circulation platform, using independently controllable blockchain technology to ensure data security, immutability, and full traceability.
Fifth, the Policy and Regulatory Innovation Project. Within the existing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development framework, establish a special coordination mechanism for the token economy, composed of data, financial, and industrial authorities from the three regions. Set up a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Token Economy Development Fund to reasonably allocate transaction tax revenue. Establish the Xiong'an Token Economy Arbitration Institute to provide professional, internationalized channels for dispute resolution.
Sixth, the National Authorization Breakthrough Project. Actively strive to include the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei token economy in relevant national plans for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and establish a national-level token economy innovation and development demonstration zone. Seek to pilot reforms in five key areas: token property rights registration, negative list management for cross-border flow, token financial innovation, exploration of settlement tools, and offshore warehouse supervision. Strictly adhere to risk prevention, prohibiting the linkage of tokens with virtual currencies and guarding against speculative trading. All innovative business models must first undergo testing within Xiong'an's regulatory sandbox.
04. Strategic Steps: A Three-Phase Approach
Phase One (2026–2027): Laying the Foundation, Establishing the Framework. Landmark achievement: The Xiong'an Token Trading Center is inaugurated, and the first token spot transaction is completed. Phase Two (2028–2029): Erecting the Pillars, Scale Materializes. Landmark achievement: Becoming a regionally leading token trading market, with the Xiong'an Index becoming a regional pricing benchmark. Phase Three (2030 and beyond): Global Leadership, Rule-Making. Landmark achievement: Initially mastering pricing discourse power in the Asia-Pacific region and deeply participating in the formulation of global token economy rules.
The token economy is a core track of the AI era, and the struggle for pricing power concerns national destiny. The four areas of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Xiong'an possess favorable timing, geographical advantages, and human resources, with significant policy coordination advantages and well-established industrial foundations. Seizing the commanding heights of the token economy is both timely and imperative. It is recommended to immediately establish a high-level special task force, led by the principal leaders of the four areas, to create a regular coordination mechanism. Advance landmark projects such as the trading platform, offshore warehouses, and the dedicated computing power network with "Xiong'an Speed" to ensure tangible progress within the window of opportunity. Proactively establish dialogue channels with international standardization organizations and major economies to accumulate momentum for leading rule-making in the third phase.
This initiative is not only a new engine for the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei but also a crucial move to implement the national strategy for science and technology innovation centers and shape China's new competitive advantages in the global AI era. It holds significant and profound implications for building a new development paradigm, achieving high-quality development, and serving Chinese-style modernization.