On January 25, 2026, the public consultation period for the "Draft Law of the People's Republic of China on State-owned Assets" ended. In this law, which lays the foundation for national wealth management, a significant clause appeared for the first time: data assets were explicitly listed as an important component of state-owned assets, enjoying the same legal status as physical and financial assets.

This marks a significant step forward, signifying that after years of preparation, data—a core production factor in the digital economy era—has finally received its "asset identity" at the fundamental level of national law. The shift from "data resources" to "data assets" represents a profound affirmation of rights and a liberation of value. The "property rights dilemma," which has long constrained the development of the data factor market, now has the most solid legal basis for a breakthrough.

This is not an isolated legal revision, but the culmination of a grand institutional design. From data being listed as a factor of production in 2019, to the "20 Measures for Data" establishing a property rights framework in 2022, and now being enshrined in the basic national law, China has completed a crucial closed loop in its data infrastructure system. The law has issued a property rights certificate for "data oil," and the next step will be to build a pipeline network and trading market to connect it to the vast economic landscape. This draft not only heralds the birth of a new trillion-dollar asset class, but also represents a decisive leap in national governance thinking from managing "tangible entities" to operating "intangible factors."

I. Core Breakthrough: Data Elevates from "Factor of Production" to "Legal Asset"

On January 25, 2026, the public consultation process for the "Draft Law of the People's Republic of China on State-owned Assets" concluded. Several clauses in this draft law explicitly mention data assets, marking the first time data has been formally recognized at the level of fundamental national law.

The release of this draft marks a new stage in the legal framework for the market-oriented reform of data elements in my country. The draft, comprising seven chapters and sixty-two articles, systematically constructs a management framework for data as a state-owned asset. Its core breakthrough lies in the formal confirmation and legal positioning of the concept of "data assets."

Since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee listed data as a factor of production in 2019, and the "20 Measures for Data" in 2022 proposed a path for the confirmation of data property rights through the "separation of three rights," China has completed a systematic layout in the construction of basic data institutions.

This legislation manages data assets alongside traditional assets such as physical assets and financial assets, fundamentally resolving the predicament of "no legal basis" for data in economic activities and legal practice. This is not merely a conceptual extension, but a profound shift in the national view of assets from "tangible entities" in the industrial era to "intangible elements" in the digital age.

II. Management Framework: How the Three Clauses Construct a Governance Closed Loop

The draft State-owned Assets Law systematically constructs a management framework for state-owned data assets through three provisions, each with its own focus and mutual support, forming a complete closed loop from responsibility implementation and capacity building to status establishment.

Article 18, focusing on clarifying the source of management responsibility, explicitly defines, for the first time at the legal level, the proactive management responsibilities of state organs and public institutions. This article formally elevates public data such as social security data, geographic information, traffic flow, and government service records from traditional administrative performance records to state-owned assets requiring strict management, providing a clear legal basis for governments at all levels to manage public data.

Article 41 sets forth the upgraded requirement of "digital management," stipulating that the State Council and local governments should coordinate the digital construction of state-owned assets to achieve information interconnection and interoperability, and comprehensively grasp the situation of state-owned assets. This is not only an upgrade in technical means, but also a profound transformation in the concept of state-owned asset supervision.

Given the characteristics of assets that change in real time, have virtual forms, and fluctuate in value, traditional static reports and post-audits are no longer sufficient. This clause promotes the shift of state-owned asset supervision from post-event reflection to a dynamic and precise governance model that includes pre-event warning and in-event intervention.

Article 61, as a cornerstone provision of the entire system design, explicitly grants data assets a management status parallel to other categories of assets. This means that in all management aspects, including asset statistics, property registration, revenue remittance, transfer procedures, and even accountability, data assets will be subject to the same legal rules and standards as physical assets and financial assets.

These three provisions together form a legal governance loop that clarifies management responsibilities, upgrades regulatory measures, and establishes equal status.

III. Data still needs to overcome three major obstacles to become a financial asset.

Although the draft State-owned Assets Law provides legal status for data assets, there are still many real gaps to be bridged between "legal assets" and truly tradable "financial assets".

The identification and valuation of data assets have become the most pressing challenges. Zhao Lifang, CEO of Data Asset Operations at China Economic Information Service, pointed out at a seminar in April 2025 that data asset management faces three major challenges: difficulty in asset identification, difficulty in scientific quantification, and difficulty in value assessment.

These difficulties mainly stem from the challenges in adapting accounting standards to data elements under the current framework, as well as the lack of operational application guidelines, which leads to market participants having a vague understanding of the carrier and a lack of basis for initial measurement when recognizing data assets.

Defining data ownership and ensuring compliant circulation presents another challenge. Although the "20 Measures for Data Management" proposes a property rights framework of "separation of three rights"—the right to hold data resources, the right to process and use data, and the right to operate data products—in practice, determining ownership of data from different sources, such as data collected independently through public channels and data involving customer personal information, remains the biggest challenge before data assets are officially recognized.

The inadequacy of trading markets and infrastructure also hinders the financialization of data assets. Although some regions have begun to explore this, such as the Shanghai Data Exchange's pilot program for "Representable Data Assets (RDA)," overall, the complete market infrastructure, from registration and ownership confirmation to trading, settlement, and dispute resolution, still needs improvement.

The unique characteristics of data as an asset lie in its non-competitive nature and low-cost reusability. Currently, there are problems such as low quality of data supply, inefficient circulation mechanisms, and insufficient release of application potential. These are all challenges faced in the development of data elements.

IV. Who will participate in shaping the new ecosystem of data-driven financialization?

The formal inclusion of data assets into law will profoundly change the ecological landscape of the data element market, giving rise to a series of financial innovations and market changes.

At the level of traditional financial institutions, banks, securities firms, and other organizations are actively exploring the financial applications of data assets. On July 31, 2025, the first approved data asset securitization project in China, "Huaxin-Xinxin-Data Asset Phase 1 Asset-Backed Special Plan," was officially issued and established on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This signifies that data assets have become feasible as collateral for financing.

Inner Mongolia Rural Commercial Bank innovatively adopted a "data ownership confirmation + dynamic evaluation + pledge financing" model, using the vehicle dispatch and operation data owned by enterprises as the core pledge asset, successfully implementing the region's first data asset pledge loan. Meanwhile, the Zhejiang Branch of Bank of Communications provided Zhejiang Lianxin Technology Co., Ltd. with a data asset pledge financing credit line of 10 million yuan.

In the field of technological innovation, the combination of data assets with technologies such as blockchain and privacy computing has given rise to new asset forms. At a closed-door seminar in July 2025, the Shanghai Data Exchange formally proposed the new paradigm of "RDA," which aims to incorporate data assets that can be identified, valued, and traded into a structural design similar to RWA.

The basic operations of this path include three steps: data ownership confirmation and encapsulation, structural design and pricing, and rights issuance and trading. Langxin's on-chain practice of charging piles is a typical case. Its on-chain object is not an isolated device, but a complete data asset of "device + operational data".

However, the issuance of data assets under the current RDA framework still faces structural limitations such as the absence of data contributors, the lack of incentive mechanisms, and the lack of usage and verification paths. To overcome these limitations, some projects are exploring a user-centric DataFi model, which transforms user behavior data into data units with structured labels and verification mechanisms.

The DataFi model attempts to construct a lightweight data asset circulation model with multilateral participation and sustainable operation through a combination of "user-led authorization" and "platform matching of needs." This represents another possible direction for the financialization of data assets.

V. Global Perspective and Risk Warning: China's Pioneering Exploration and Cautious Progress

China's data asset legislation practices demonstrate significant global foresight. Currently, no other country in the world has explicitly defined data as an "asset" in its national laws and incorporated it into its state-owned asset regulatory framework.

This legislative innovation has given China a first-mover advantage in the formulation of global digital economy rules. According to Redstone's latest report on RWA, as of June 2025, the size of real-world assets (RWA) has climbed from $5 billion in 2022 to over $24 billion, an increase of 380%.

As the application value of data continues to rise in scenarios such as AI training, advertising, and on-chain economy, it has not only become a new factor of production but also possesses some of the characteristics of RWA (Realistically Verifiable Assets), namely, authenticity, verifiability, and tradability. China's data asset legislation provides a legal basis for data assets to enter this rapidly growing market.

However, the financialization of data assets must be pursued prudently to guard against potential risks. The lack of common standards for assessing the value of data assets and the unclear allocation of pricing power can easily lead to unreasonable transaction prices.

Data security and privacy protection are also significant risks. How to determine ownership and ensure the compliant use of customer personal information data accumulated during business operations is a compliance challenge that requires special attention. Data asset transactions must be conducted under the premise of legality and compliance, and the protection of public safety and the privacy of relevant market participants.

The lack of adequate market infrastructure may lead to liquidity risks. Although some regions have begun pilot programs, a unified national data asset trading market has not yet been established. The absence of a mature market pricing mechanism and liquidity support may affect the discovery of the true value of data assets and their effective circulation.

Finally, technological risks cannot be ignored. The application of technologies such as blockchain and privacy computing in the financialization of data assets is still in its early stages, and there are uncertainties regarding technological maturity, security, and interoperability, which may affect the stable operation of data asset financial products.

With the draft State-owned Assets Law sealing the legal foundation for data assets, a new era has begun. This is not merely a revision of legal provisions, but a profound refresh of the nation's understanding of wealth—from tangible land and factories to intangible data and algorithms, the cornerstone of national governance is being reconstructed in the digital wave.

The law has granted data the status of "assets," but the real test has only just begun. From "legal confirmation of ownership" to "market circulation," numerous practical gaps remain to be bridged, including valuation, compliance, and trading. It's like issuing a mining license for a vast oil field, but the extraction technology, pipelines, and trading markets still need to be built from scratch. The road ahead will be a journey of exploration jointly undertaken by rules, technology, and business acumen.

For financial institutions, this signifies the emergence of a completely new asset class, with innovations such as data-backed financing and asset securitization already visible on the horizon. For technology companies, a race to capitalize on data assets (valuation, auditing, compliance, and trading) is about to begin. And for every enterprise and public institution possessing data resources, data governance is no longer just a cost center, but a mandatory course for future core competitiveness.

This legislation is a crucial move in the global competition for digital economy rules. With data sovereignty increasingly becoming a focal point of great power rivalry, China's clarification of data's asset attributes and management framework through fundamental national laws not only releases institutional dividends for its domestic market but also provides a solid "Chinese solution" for participating in global digital governance.

The law has opened that door. Behind it lies a vast new continent where rules await writing, an ecosystem awaits building, and values ​​await discovery. This is no longer a discussion about "feasibility," but a practice about "how to implement it." There are no bystanders in this transformation; whether we are proactive or passive, we will all become participants.

History will remember this day: data, the "oil" of the information age, has finally obtained its property rights certificate. And the grand narrative surrounding the digital economy now has its fundamental legal starting point. The story to come will be written by the market, technology, and every participant.

Some of the information comes from the following sources:

• Data assets are explicitly defined as assets for the first time at the level of basic national law! The draft of the State-owned Assets Law incorporates data assets.

• Data assets will be formally incorporated into law; the institutional framework is taking a crucial step forward.

*Digital Intelligence | Data Assets to be Formally Enshrined in Law: A Key Step Forward in System Construction*

Author: Liang Yu; Editor: Zhao Yidan