Original Article Title: "Will Hong Kong's RWA Route Fail?"

Original Source: Yekai (WeChat/Twitter: YekaiMeta)

Over the past few days, the media clash between HashKey and OSL has once again put the Hong Kong virtual asset ecosystem in the spotlight: 10 licensed trading platforms have been licensed, 8 are still in the queue, yet there is little actual trading volume and depth. More embarrassingly, the highly anticipated Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization has stalled after completing three trial runs; most licensed platforms can only rely on OTC business to survive, with income being meager.

The license dividend has not materialized, product innovation is struggling, and Hong Kong's RWA route is facing a collective question of "what now," raising doubts as to whether this will be a failed new financial trial.

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Key Conclusion Upfront: Hong Kong's current RWA experiment will not "fail," but if it continues to dwell in a single-line mindset of "issuance = financing," it will inevitably be squeezed by Wall Street's standardization wave and Southeast Asia's multi-level capital network. The only way out is to return to infrastructure, develop a deep institutional market, leverage offshore advantages, and shape the Asia-Pacific hub for on-chain assets.

01 First, Look at the Curve: U.S. Steadily Climbing, Hong Kong Passively Ripening

1. Wall Street (T-RWA Path): From Bitcoin spot ETF → US Treasury tokenization → Bank deposit tokenization → MMF tokenization → Stablecoin → US stock tokenization. All centered around "cost reduction + stock unchanged," hardly touching incremental financing or non-standard products.

2. Hong Kong Curve: Skipped the standardization phase, directly issued three non-standard corporate bonds in the sandbox, propelled to the forefront by tech companies + brokerages. The ripened RWA market, currently lacking secondary liquidity, with issuance at a standstill, has slid toward the peak of inflated expectations.

Pain Points Created:

· Narrow Asset End: Only accommodating quasi new energy bonds, overlooking cash flow assets such as logistics warehousing, AI computing centers, and precious metal mines;

· Capital Intensive — USD cost 10%+, project starting point     $30 million, discouraging small and medium enterprises;

· Infrastructure Deficiency — Relies entirely on a single alliance chain for public chain, custody, and Oracle;

· Market Education Drought — Asset side and capital side have not yet completed market education, third-party institutions such as brokerages, audits, and market makers are not yet systematic, and licensed trading platforms' RWA business has not yet taken off, relying mainly on OTC trading to survive.

02 Why Can't "Replicating Wall Street" Replicate?

Although Hong Kong has been imitating Wall Street diligently, when it comes to ETF data, during a recent period of BTC price decline, the net inflow of ETFs in the United States was $260 million; during the same period, ETF purchases and redemptions in Hong Kong were zero.

Solution (Three Steps)

1. Asset: Transition from single bond to a diversified pool of "bonds + stocks + commodities + carbon credits".

2. Capital: Establish an offshore RWA parent fund, with HKD stablecoin/Crypto + HKD + USD operating in parallel;

3. Infrastructure: Public chain Layer2 (HashKeyChain or WeBank Technology) + HKD stablecoin + compliant Custody, forming a 7x24 settlement network.

03 Offshore Financial Architecture: Mainland Assets × Hong Kong Primary × Overseas Secondary × DeFi Tertiary

Do not be confused or polluted by various information sources, the path for high-quality mainland assets can only follow such an offshore financial structure:

1. Asset Confirmation — Mainland SPV packaging assets (precious metals, manufacturing, agriculture, AI computing power data centers, logistics warehousing, etc.);

2. Primary Issuance — Hong Kong licensed brokerage + audit pricing, private placement RWA Fund;

3. Secondary Liquidity — Singapore/Dubai secondary market or ATS market making, USDT/USDC pool acceleration;

4. Tertiary/DeFi — On-chain AMM, Staking collateral, unlocking retail traffic.

The multi-layered capital market architecture avoids single-point regulatory bottlenecks, enabling cross-domain fund and asset arbitrage, which in turn benefits the primary market in Hong Kong, creating a positive feedback loop.

04 Hong Kong Institutional Market: Bonds are Just for "Management Exit," Not for "Fundraising"

RWA is not just about issuing bonds for financing, nor is it about front-end financing; a good asset pool does not lack a suitable funding end.

1. The essence of bonds is to serve long-term institutional holders; if the asset pool is not broad enough, the secondary market will inevitably be barren.

2. What is truly lacking is not "people who can sell bonds," but a brokerage + audit combination that produces a high-quality asset package that is "auditable and transparent."

3. Licensed trading platforms should transition to a three-in-one model of market-making + investment research + community building, rather than waiting for star projects to land magically.

05 Agricultural RWA: From "Ma Lu Grapes" to Rural Upgrading

The returns on high-value agricultural products are not low, and the policy regulation tolerance is high.

1. Difficulty in land rights confirmation → adopt equity SPV + agricultural REITs to avoid crossing the red line.

2. High-value crops (wild ginseng, Chinese medicinal herbs, agarwood, aged tangerine peel, etc.) + warehouse receipts/long-term procurement agreements → revenue rights financing.

3. Rural cultural tourism + landmark brand on the chain → enabling global capital to acquire "scenery + returns + ESG."

Agricultural RWA provides an incremental story, opening up a new track of "green finance + rural revitalization" for Hong Kong.

06 Infrastructure Strategy: Creating an "Asia-Pacific On-Chain Asset List"

Build a Web2.5 RWA infrastructure with Web3.0 infrastructure concepts

· HKD Stablecoin—Link to RMB internationalization (reserve asset - offshore RMB), becoming the HKD clearing anchor;

· Layer2 Public Chain—Supporting Hong Kong Stock Tokenization, RWA infrastructure;

· Licensed Trading Platform Alliance DEX—Establishing a liquidity alliance, sharing market-making depth, bridging Hong Kong stocks and crypto stocks;

· OTC & Custody—Connecting institutional cold wallets, family offices, and offshore funds of Hong Kong-based financial institutions;

· DePIN+AI Agent — Abandoning the erroneous path of "digitalization-on-chain-tokenization," directly generating on-chain distributed assets based on infrastructure to form a traceable distributed asset data network.

07 Future Roadmap: From "Copying Homework" to "Setting Exam Questions"

08 Conclusion: Hong Kong RWA Will Not Fail, But the Path Needs Restructuring

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 RWA era, it needs to upgrade from "Wall Street replication" to a three-dimensional battlefield of "integrating mainland assets + offshore funds + on-chain infrastructure." When the HKD stablecoin, Layer 2 settlement, and cross-border ATS are established, Hong Kong will transition from a "follower" to an "Asia-Pacific on-chain asset hub," truly completing, deepening, and expanding the RWA story.

#ARAW Always RWA Always Win!

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