HK Web3 Festival Roundtable: Asia-Pacific's "RWA Moment": Hong Kong vs Singapore

ChainCatcher onsite report: At the HK Web3 Feastival roundtable discussion, Celine Tan, Head of Liquidity Distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management Hong Kong Limited; Kelly Sohn, Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Mirae Asset Securities (HK) Limited; Victor Jung, Head of Digital Assets at Hamilton Lane; and Victor Jung’s and JPMorgan Chase Global Investment Banking Managing Director Xu Ping jointly attended and shared “The RWA Moment in Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong vs Singapore”.

The participating guests generally believe that RWAs are currently moving from concept proof to broader deployment. The driving forces behind this primarily include technology gradually maturing, an increasingly clear regulatory framework, and a rising market demand for stable, income-generating asset allocations.

Kelly Sohn said that this wave of RWA momentum is different from the past—it is not driven by a single factor, but rather the combined result of three forces: technology, regulation, and capital flows. She also pointed out that at the current stage, assets more suitable for tokenization include standardized products such as money market funds and commodities. In addition, the combination of stablecoins and tokenized assets will further enhance on-chain trading and settlement efficiency.

Xu Ping said that after the FTX incident, Singapore has taken a more cautious overall approach, with the focus leaning more toward institutional investors. By contrast, Hong Kong has advantages in retail access, the licensing regime, and the market’s openness to innovation, making it more attractive to exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and custodians. She also mentioned that banks will play key roles in the RWA ecosystem, including infrastructure, custody, and payment settlement.

Victor Jung said that the market has previously focused too much on institutional narratives, but the retail side is also an important source of demand for tokenization. He summarized the current demand into two categories: one is to generate more returns by leveraging on-chain capabilities, and the other is to reduce costs by improving efficiency. In his view, industry momentum has shifted from early-stage technology supply to being driven by genuine investor demand.

The roundtable discussion also noted that if RWAs are to further expand their applications in the next phase, issues such as regulatory clarity, the readiness of institutional infrastructure, and investor education still need to be addressed. These factors remain key variables affecting further market development.