I. High Financing Costs for Hong Kong RWA
Currently, the financing costs in the Hong Kong RWA market are high. From a financing cost perspective, high-quality domestic enterprises typically obtain bank financing at 3.5%-4%, while the comprehensive cost of issuing RWA in Hong Kong (including 4-5 million HKD in issuance fees) reaches as high as 10%, showing a clear cost inversion. In this context, listed companies' core demands for RWA have shifted from pure financing to market value management. A typical case shows that a tech enterprise's market value rose from 6.7 billion HKD to 14.6 billion HKD within three to four months after RWA issuance.
The transitional nature of Hong Kong's regulatory framework is particularly prominent. According to current regulations, debt-type RWA is limited to professional investors (PI), and licensed trading platforms cannot open secondary retail markets. This restriction objectively promotes a "securitization first, tokenization following" Web2.5 model: enterprises must first convert assets into fund products regulated by License 9, then undergo tokenization through licensed institutions. Although this constrains liquidity in the short term, it creates opportunities for building a multi-layered cross-border market system.
II. Multi-Level Market Collaborative Architecture
The key to solving Hong Kong's liquidity challenges lies in establishing a cross-border collaborative mechanism. This could involve creating a three-tier experimental framework between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
· The first layer is the domestic rights confirmation layer, conducting data asset standardization on domestic data asset trading platforms, completing asset preparation through sandbox mechanisms, and ensuring core data rights confirmation domestically.
· The second layer is the offshore issuance layer, where Hong Kong licensed institutions package processed data assets into compliant fund products and complete private placement under License 9.
· The third layer is the global circulation layer, where Singapore leverages RMO license advantages to take on secondary market circulation, achieving compliant cross-border flow through China-Singapore international data channels.
The innovative value of this framework is reflected in three dimensions: first, domestic links strictly adhere to data security baselines and avoid Circular 38 regulatory risks; second, Hong Kong leverages licensed institutions' professional advantages, focusing on primary market issuance; third, Singapore opens secondary retail markets, activating global capital participation.
III. Structured Financial Design Approach
Merely putting assets on-chain cannot create effective financial products; structured financial product design is necessary. Taking BlackRock's fund operation model as an example, BlackRock combines mid-to-short-term US Treasury ETF with smart contract pledging, guaranteeing 6-8% base returns while releasing floating premium space through native tokens. This model successfully attracts over 30% of crypto native capital allocation demand.
The offshore supporting system is equally crucial. For instance, the VIE structure + FT account combination could be tested in the Hainan Free Trade Zone, achieving cross-border asset and fund closed-loop within a physically isolated framework. Its "regulatory sandbox + whitelist network" design provides a solution for sensitive asset circulation. This model achieves asset equity export in legal terms through VIE structure, builds a fund flow firewall using the FT account system, and establishes a dedicated network channel to overcome cross-border operational barriers.
IV. Wall Street's Ladder-Style Penetration Strategy
BlackRock's ladder-style penetration strategy is worth close attention. From Bitcoin spot ETF (with management scale exceeding $30 billion) to money market fund tokenization (BUIDL fund scale breaking $1 billion), to collaborating with Circle to issue stablecoin USDB, its development path reveals a strategy of penetrating from institutional to retail markets. More disruptively, the institution plans to convert $11.6 trillion in mid-to-long-term assets into on-chain liquidity through pledging, potentially reshaping global capital flow patterns.
Distributed Digital Identity (DID) system forms the strategic fulcrum. BlackRock explicitly positions DID as inclusive finance infrastructure in public documents, attempting to break institutional and retail market barriers through a verifiable credit system. The inspiration for Hong Kong is that RWA development should not be limited to professional investor markets but should proactively layout underlying capabilities like digital identity authentication and on-chain settlement.
V. Development Projection and Path Selection
Hong Kong's RWA ecosystem is at the critical intersection of a regulatory arbitrage window and model finalization period. The breakthrough directions reveal three major trends: first, market structure optimization, consolidating Hong Kong's primary issuance market position and forming complementary differentiation with Singapore's secondary market. Second, product capability upgrade, shifting from simple asset on-chain to structured designs like ABS layering and revenue right penetration. Third, digital infrastructure prioritization, accelerating basic infrastructure construction like DID systems and smart contract settlement platforms.
For domestic business, the immediate priorities are: first, innovating development models and establishing a standardized "domestic asset preparation - offshore financial issuance" process; second, cultivating cross-border structured product design capabilities to form differentiated competitive advantages; third, focusing on stablecoin and pledged derivative innovations to prevent overseas liquidity siphoning effects.
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