The evolution of RWA policies in Hong Kong, nine benchmark cases, and the panoramic layout of licensed institutions.

Author: Lulu

Hong Kong has undergone a great rebirth in just over a year, from self-mockery as the “ruins of the Asian financial center” to relying on Hong Kong stock IPOs, the combination of real and virtual assets, and the resurgence of stablecoin hotspots, reclaiming its status as a global financial center.

In recent years, Hong Kong has gradually become the forefront of RWA (Real World Asset) development through policy innovation and institutional practice in virtual assets. This article systematically reviews the policy evolution context, benchmark compliance cases, and core licensed institution layout of Security Token Offering (STO) in Hong Kong, revealing the key logic behind the construction of a compliant RWA ecosystem in Hong Kong.

This article does not include RWA on-chain ecosystems or RWA conceptual projects that have not been approved by the Hong Kong SFC.

Hong Kong RWA Policy Timeline

1. Initial Exploration (2017-2022)

• September 2017: The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a statement on initial coin offerings, clarifying that security tokens require licensing.
• October 2022: The Hong Kong government released the “Virtual Asset Policy Declaration,” establishing the strategic position of RWA.

2. Regulatory System Formation (2023-2****024)

• November 2023: The SFC allows public subscription for security tokens, incorporating them under the Securities and Futures Ordinance regulation.
• March 2024: The Monetary Authority launches the Ensemble project to test scenarios for green bonds and supply chain finance tokenization.
• December 2024: The “Stablecoin Regulation Draft” will be submitted to the Legislative Council for review, clarifying that the issuance of fiat stablecoins requires a license.

3. Deepening Innovation (2025 to Present)

• January 2025: The Monetary Authority will launch the “Digital Bond Funding Program” to encourage the application of tokenization technology.
• March 2025: SFC and the Monetary Authority update the “Guidelines on Virtual Asset Related Activities” to regulate cross-border data and secondary market management.

Key Legislation: The Stablecoin Regulation Draft was passed in May 2025, requiring that fiat-backed stablecoin reserves are fully custodial, prohibiting payment of interest, and allowing only licensed institutions to sell to retail investors.

Analysis of Hong Kong RWA Benchmark Cases

1. Taiji Capital Prince Real Estate STO

• Issuance Date: September 10, 2023
• Issuer: Taiji Capital
• Fundraising amount: 100 million HKD
• Underlying assets: Rental income rights of 5 retail properties in the Jiulong Prince tourism hotspot.
• Technical Architecture: ERC-1400 standard, traded through HKbitEX platform
• Compliance Breakthrough: Hong Kong’s first real estate security token offering (STO) obtains SFC License No. 4 and No. 9
• Significance of the Case: Pioneering the tokenization of traditional real estate assets on the blockchain, promoting the development of the Hong Kong STO market.

2. Harvest International Tokenized Fund

• Release Date: December 18, 2023
• Issuer: Harvest Global Investments
• Fundraising Amount: 110 million USD
• Underlying Assets: Short-term US Dollar Deposits and Money Market Instruments
• Technical Architecture: Ethereum smart contracts, Standard Chartered Bank’s Libeara platform custody
• Compliance Breakthrough: Hong Kong’s first tokenized fund, obtained SFC License No. 9
• Case significance: The first institutional-grade tokenized fund in the Asia-Pacific region, with a minimum investment threshold of 100,000 USD.

3. HSBC Gold Token GTP

• Issuance Date: March 27, 2024
• Issuer: HSBC Bank
• Fundraising amount: Not disclosed (retail license covers full gold reserves)
• Underlying assets: Physical gold bars certified by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), held in the England vault.
• Technical architecture: HSBC’s self-developed Orion platform, bridging DeFi protocols through Polygon.
• Compliance Breakthrough: The first RWA product in Hong Kong to obtain an SFC retail license, circumventing restrictions on virtual asset trading.
• Significance of the case: Achieving the on-chain division of physical gold (minimum 0.001 ounces), supporting staking for interest (annualized 4.2%)

4. Langxin Technology New Energy Charging Pile RWA

• Release date: August 23, 2024
• Issuer: Longxin Technology, Ant Group, UBS Group (Lead Underwriter)
• Fundraising Amount: 100 million RMB
• Underlying assets: 9,000 domestic charging piles operating income rights, IoT devices real-time verification of electricity revenue
• Technical Architecture: ERC-3643 Layered Token, AntChain provides blockchain + IoT integration technology
• Compliance Breakthrough: Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Ensemble Sandbox First Cross-Border RWA Case of Mainland New Energy Assets
• Significance of the case: To verify the path of cross-border asset tokenization and raise funds to support small and medium-sized energy storage operators.

5. Xiexin Nengke Photovoltaic Power Station RWA

• Release Date: December 23, 2024
• Issuer: Xiexin Energy Technology, Ant Group Digital Technology
• Fundraising amount: 200 million RMB
• Underlying assets: Hunan and Hubei 82MW distributed photovoltaic power station generation income rights
• Technical Architecture: Dynamic NFT mapping of power station data, Ant Chain Jovay platform supports 100,000 TPS
• Compliance Breakthrough: Hong Kong’s first tokenized green bond project has received foreign exchange exemptions from Shenzhen’s “New Energy Finance Sandbox”.
• Significance of the case: Annual yield of 6.8%, dual data verification with satellite remote sensing + ground sensors

6. Huaxia Fund Hong Kong Dollar Digital Currency Fund (2025)

• Release Date: February 28, 2025
• Issuer: Huaxia Fund
• Fundraising Amount: $110 million
• Underlying assets: Hong Kong dollar short-term deposits and money market instruments
• Technical Architecture: Ethereum Tokenization, OSL Exchange Distribution
• Compliance Breakthrough: The world’s largest retail tokenized fund, with a whitelist mechanism restricting retail trading.
• Significance of the case: Promote Hong Kong to become the Asia-Pacific center for retail tokenized funds.

7. Xunying Mobility Battery Swap Asset RWA

• Release Date: March 15, 2025
• Issuer: Xunying Group, Ant Group, Hong Kong Victory Securities
• Fundraising amount: tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars
• Underlying assets: 4,000 battery swap cabinets nationwide and revenue rights for 40,000 lithium batteries.
• Technical Architecture: AntChain + Conflux public chain real-time on-chain IoT data, dynamically adjusting token value
• Compliance Breakthrough: The world’s first battery swap physical asset RWA, raising funds across borders through the Ensemble sandbox.
• Significance of the case: Annual return of 8%, covering high-frequency rider battery swap scenarios.

8. Taibao Asset Management Tokenized US Dollar Currency Fund

• Issuance date: March 18, 2025
• Issuer: Taibao Asset Management, HashKey Chain
• Fundraising amount: 100 million USD
• Underlying Assets: US Dollar Money Market Instruments (Short-term Treasury Bills, Commercial Paper)
• Technical Architecture: HashKey Chain public chain certification, Standard Chartered Bank custody
• Compliance Breakthrough: The First On-Chain Money Market Fund by Chinese Institutions
• Significance of the case: Achieve T+0 settlement and real-time profit distribution, activating the circulation of institutional funds.

9. Solowin Real Yield Token RYT

• Release Date: April 15, 2025
• Issuer: Solowin Digital
• Fundraising Amount: Not Disclosed
• Underlying Asset: Huaxia Fund Preferred US Dollar Monetary Instruments
• Technical Architecture: Ethereum-based token, custodied by Standard Chartered Bank
• Case significance: Innovating the “Yield Enhancement + Instant Redemption” model, with an annualized yield of 5.3% for seven days.

Analysis of the Strategic Layout of Licensed Institutions

1. Internet Giants: Technology Empowerment and License Integration

Ant Group

• Strategic Positioning: Construct a “Payment-Wealth Management-Securities Trading” ecological closed loop through the acquisition of Yao Cai Securities (holding 50.55%).
• Technical Architecture: Leading the “Two Chains and One Bridge” platform, supporting dynamic NFTs and 100,000 TPS high concurrent transactions.
• Representative cases: Xiexin Nengke photovoltaic power station RWA, Xunying battery swap asset RWA.
• Compliance Path: Participate in the HKMA Ensemble Sandbox Testing.

JD Technology

• Strategic Positioning: Focus on stablecoins (JD-HKD) and the tokenization of new energy assets, planning to issue RWA for photovoltaic power stations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai (target fundraising of 500 million yuan).
• Technical Architecture: Ethereum Layer 2 + Conflux Cross-Chain Bridge.
• Compliance Path: JD-HKD enters the Monetary Authority’s stablecoin sandbox testing.

2. Exchange System: Infrastructure and Liquidity Support

HashKey Group

• Strategic Positioning: Licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider (VATP License), leading tokenized ETFs and public chain infrastructure, as well as the construction of the Wanxiang Web3 Carnival industry-level summit.
• Case example: Issuing a tokenized US dollar currency fund in collaboration with Taibao Asset Management (raising 100 million USD).

OSL Exchange

• Strategic Positioning: The first licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong, distributing Huaxia Fund’s Hong Kong dollar digital currency fund and various compliant crypto asset products.

Taiji Capital (HKbitEX)

• Strategic Positioning: Hong Kong’s first licensed trading platform for STO and RWA concepts, focusing on real estate STO and secondary market trading.
• Representative case: Prince Property STO (raising HKD 100 million).

3. Brokerage Firms: Business Innovation and Compliance Transformation

Tiger Brokers

• Strategic Positioning: Holding VASP license through subsidiary YAX, providing crypto asset pledge financing services (LTV up to 50%).
• Technical Architecture: Automated clearing of smart contracts, supporting multi-chain asset staking.

Futu Securities

• Strategic Positioning: Hong Kong’s top internet brokerage, reusing SFC licenses 1/4/9 to integrate cryptocurrency services, supporting BTC/ETH deposits and withdrawals as well as the interoperability of stock and cryptocurrency accounts.
• Representative case: The trading volume of cryptocurrency assets exceeded 400 million US dollars on the first day.

Guotai Junan International

• Strategic Positioning: Top 3 domestic Chinese-funded securities firms, transforming into tokenized securities distribution and digital bond issuance services.

Victory Securities

• Strategic Positioning: The first local broker in Hong Kong to obtain a virtual asset license, participating in the Eagle Change Battery asset RWA (raising tens of millions of HKD).

Fosun Wealth Holdings

• Strategic positioning: Build an integrated ecosystem for RWA issuance, distribution, and custody through the “Xinglu Technology” and “Xinglian” platform.

4. Asset Management Fund Companies: Product Innovation and Asset On-Chain

Huaxia Fund

• Strategic positioning: Launching the first retail tokenized fund in the Asia-Pacific region in 2025 (HKD digital currency fund, raising 110 million USD), and planning a virtual asset ETF in 2024.
• Technical architecture: Issued on the Ethereum chain, distributed by OSL exchange.

Pacific Insurance Asset Management (PacifiCare Asset Management)

• Strategic Positioning: The first Chinese-funded insurance asset management to enter the market, collaborating with HashKey to issue a tokenized US dollar money market fund in 2025.
• Compliance Path: Obtained SFC License No. 9, supporting T+0 settlement and real-time profit distribution.

Jia Shi International

• Strategic Positioning: In 2023, issue Hong Kong’s first tokenized fund (raising $110 million), with underlying assets being short-term USD deposits, and in 2024, layout virtual asset ETFs.

5. Traditional Banks: Stablecoins and Asset Custody

Standard Chartered Bank

• Strategic positioning: Collaborating with Hong Kong Telecom and Animoca to develop the HKD stablecoin, managing RWA products such as Huaxia Fund.
• Technical Architecture: Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, with reserve assets stored in the England vault.

HSBC Bank

• Strategic positioning: Launch the retail-grade gold token GTP, with a minimum trading unit of 0.001 ounces and an annual staking yield of 4.2%.
• Technical Architecture: Self-developed Orion platform + Polygon cross-chain bridge, real-time anchoring of London gold price.

6. Other licensed participants

BOC International

• Core business: Pilot project for cross-border trade letters of credit on the blockchain, participating in the Monetary Authority’s Ensemble project.
• License: SFC License No. 1/6.

Hang Seng Bank

• Core Business: Initial member of the Ensemble project, supporting electronic bill of lading tokenized trade financing.
• License: Bank license recognized by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Hong Kong has built a core framework for the RWA ecosystem through policy iteration and institutional practices. With the deepening of technology and the improvement of regulation, it may become the core hub for global tokenized asset flow, with major institutions forming a closed loop of green energy and real estate assets, aiming to exceed 16 trillion dollars in tokenization scale by 2030.

Disclaimer: Readers are advised to strictly comply with the laws and regulations of their location; this article does not constitute any investment advice.