ME Group CEO Jessica and DigiFT founder and CEO Henry engaged in an in-depth conversation. This dialogue not only reviewed DigiFT's breakthrough journey over the past four years, but also revealed the strategic blueprint for the RWA sector to leap from "0 to 1" to "10 to 100".
Article author: 0x9999in1
Article source: ME
Recently, during Hong Kong Fintech Week, Hong Kong, as a global hub for RWA and digital asset regulatory innovation, attracted top players from North America, Singapore, and the Asia-Pacific region. Jessica, CEO of ME Group, and Henry, founder and CEO of DigiFT, engaged in an in-depth dialogue. This conversation not only reviewed DigiFT's breakthrough journey over the past four years but also revealed the strategic blueprint for the RWA sector's leap from "0 to 1" to "10 to 100".
Singapore's first flight: The world's first licensed decentralized exchange for real-world assets (RWA On-Chain Exchange)
During the DeFi Summer of 2020, Henry, with over 20 years of experience in traditional finance, keenly recognized the potential of Web3 to reshape financial infrastructure and founded DigiFT. Notably, it is currently the only decentralized digital asset exchange (RWA On-Chain Exchange) operating within the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Fintech Regulatory Sandbox.
Henry emphasized, "We are the world's first and currently only licensed Real-World Asset Decentralized Exchange (RWA On-Chain Exchange)." This license not only officially endorses the "self-custody + smart contract driven + micro-branch deployment" technical architecture, but also makes DigiFT a compliant bridgehead for institutional-grade assets to be on-chain.
From Fixed Income to Equities: Steady Expansion of the Product Portfolio
After four years of dedicated development, DigiFT has achieved several milestones "from 0 to 1" and is now accelerating its scaling up from "1 to 2" and even "10 to 100". Its product line started with the most accessible fixed-income assets—US Treasury bonds and money market funds (MMFs)—and is gradually expanding to equity assets such as Hong Kong stocks and US stocks. Henry revealed, "Last week we announced the tokenization of shares in Ocean Group Holdings Limited."
Meanwhile, collaborations with leading institutions such as UBS Asset Management, Invesco, DBS, and CMBI have been launched. He jokingly remarked, "Just as Amazon initially only sold books before expanding to diversified categories, RWA tokenization also follows an evolutionary path from simple to complex, and from single to multiple."
Full-stack infrastructure: One-stop empowerment for asset on-chaining
DigiFT has built a full-stack modular infrastructure covering asset tokenization, distribution, trading, and secondary market applications, providing end-to-end or point-in-the-loop services to its partners. Henry stated, "At its core, we offer a complete full-stack technology architecture, primarily encompassing tokenization, distribution, trading, and application."
With its dual licenses as a brokerage firm and an exchange, the DigiFT platform is continuously expanding the breadth of asset categories and the depth of individual categories, while also adding advanced features such as liquidity solutions and smart routing to truly enable on-chain assets to "run faster and circulate more flexibly".
Borderless technology, global customers
It's often said that blockchain is inherently "borderless," and DigiFT therefore targets global asset issuers and investors, operating solely within a compliant framework. Henry points out, "From a licensing perspective, Hong Kong and Singapore, as global financial centers, along with the US and Japan, are inherently hubs for global assets and capital; therefore, we are globally oriented." Currently, numerous Hong Kong and US-listed companies are actively seeking partnerships for stock tokenization, and institutional demand for 24/7 on-chain real-time settlement and global liquidity is surging.
A historic shift from "funds going online" to "assets going on the blockchain".
Henry's assessment of the RWA market is insightful: it's not just an incremental market, but a comprehensive transformation of existing finance. The core of Web3 is "value transfer," where tokens can represent native crypto assets as well as traditional fund shares, stocks, or physical asset shares, bringing unprecedented composability and settlement efficiency. He predicts, "RWA's current market size might only be a few hundred million, but later everyone will be estimating it in trillions; there's a transformation process involved."
The real tipping point is "money on-chain." Henry emphasizes, "Once people have stablecoins, they'll ask two questions: how to pay? How to invest? I can use stablecoins to invest." Once funds are fully tokenized, whether it's stablecoins or central bank digital currencies, users will naturally drive all assets to be on-chain. He compares this to the wave of "money going online" 25 years ago, and today we're ushering in a new era of "asset on-chain."
Conclusion
As an undisputed early pioneer and standard setter in the RWA (Rich Virtual Asset) field, Henry and DigiFT have proven over four years that compliance and innovation are not contradictory, and that the on-chain world can fully meet the stringent requirements of institutional finance. Jessica concluded the interview by expressing her expectation that, under Henry's leadership, DigiFT will continue to set new benchmarks for global asset on-chaining, propelling the industry's sub-sectors from "booming" to "naturally successful."
