Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, together with Hongming Capital, FINWEX and other institutions, has launched the Greater Bay Area RWA Incubator.

The Greater Bay Area RWA Incubator is an innovative digital asset service consulting organization jointly initiated by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hongming Capital, FINWEX, ADD LABS, Yingke Law Firm, Nuts Capital, PWC, Bitgain and other institutions, focusing on enterprise RWA digital asset issuance and industry cooperation platform.

With industry influence, professional technical team, global marketing resources, and core cooperative resources, we provide high-level assistance to traditional enterprises in embracing the new trend of the digital economy and deploying new developments with new technologies.

What is RWA?

Real world assets (RWA) refer to valuable items that exist in the physical world, including but not limited to real estate, artwork, stocks, bonds, etc.

The characteristics of these assets are that they have real value and typically require a legal framework to ensure the security of their ownership and transactions. With the development of blockchain technology, especially the application of smart contracts, RWA can be converted into digital form through tokenization, enabling more efficient and transparent management and transactions on the blockchain.

Tokenization: The process of converting RWA into digital tokens, enabling these assets to be divided, transferred, and traded on a blockchain network.

Liquidity Enhancement: Traditional RWAs are difficult to trade frequently due to their high value and low liquidity, but through tokenization, these assets can be divided into smaller parts, reducing the investment threshold and increasing liquidity.

Enhanced Transparency: All transaction records are publicly transparent on the blockchain, reducing the possibility of fraudulent activities and enhancing market trust.

The RWA market has a huge potential.

Tokenization of RWAs not only provides investors with more diversified investment channels, but also opens up new avenues for corporate and project financing. Financial institutions also see the potential of RWAs in enhancing market transparency. Since all transaction records are stored on the blockchain, this makes auditing and regulation easier. This also means higher trust, which is of great significance in attracting investors globally.

Economists generally believe that the tokenization of RWA could reshape the structure of traditional financial markets. By lowering the investment threshold and increasing market transparency, RWA can attract more small and medium-sized investors to participate in high-end markets that were previously difficult to access.

This kind of change may prompt capital to flow in a more efficient direction, thereby driving economic growth.

Hong Kong RWA policy progress

Hong Kong is advancing asset tokenization in multiple aspects. Since the issuance of the policy manifesto on the development of virtual assets in 2022, Hong Kong has introduced a series of policies for the development of the virtual asset market, leading to the emergence of new markets, new institutions, and new trading.

Since October 31, 2022, excellent blockchain companies from around the world have actively settled in Hong Kong since the Hong Kong SAR Government issued the Declaration of Virtual Asset Development Policy.

In February 2023, the Hong Kong SAR government issued 800 million Hong Kong dollars of tokenized green bonds.

In June 2023, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission opened applications for virtual asset licenses, allowing compliant operators to provide services to professional and retail investors. The development of RWA now has a formal regulatory framework.

In February 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued a circular on the sale and distribution of tokenized products, clarifying the expected regulatory standards for approved institutions to sell and distribute tokenized products to customers.

In March 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the launch of the Ensemble project (sandbox) to support the development of the tokenized market in Hong Kong, conducting in-depth research and testing various tokenization cases.

In July 2024, the Hong Kong Treasury Department and the HKMA jointly issued a consultation summary on the proposed regulatory system for stablecoin issuance. The introduction of a stablecoin regulatory framework will accelerate the RWA and tokenization practices in a compliant environment.

The mission of the Greater Bay Area RWA Incubator

With the advancement of technology and the increasing market acceptance, we have provided an unprecedented opportunity through the application of the RWA ecosystem to transform traditionally illiquid real assets into easily tradable and manageable digital forms. This not only reduces the investment threshold, allowing more people to participate in the high-end market, but also greatly improves the liquidity of assets and the transparency of the market.

From a macroeconomic perspective, RWA is expected to promote more efficient allocation of capital globally and stimulate new economic growth points. It not only helps optimize resource allocation, but also provides more financing channels for small and medium-sized enterprises, enhances market competition, and promotes innovation.

We look forward to working with partners to jointly promote the development of RWA, build a more open and equal financial market environment, and enable more people to enjoy the convenience of financial services, which is of great significance for achieving inclusive growth in the global economy.

Greater Bay Area RWA Incubator

Initiating Institution Introduction

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a world-renowned research university, focusing on science and business management, with equal emphasis on humanities and social sciences. It is particularly strong in business and engineering, and has achieved significant accomplishments in the fields of physics, engineering, business administration, biological sciences and biotechnology, and environment and sustainable development.

Top-tier cryptographic R&D laboratory directly supported by the Hong Kong government; focusing on Web3 underlying technologies and applications, including cryptography, blockchain, smart contracts, token economics, DeFi, metaverse, etc.

60+ production, education, and research teams, 20+ research papers.

27+ top capital investment support at home and abroad.

Harmon Venture (Hongming Capital) is a Web3 market research and AI project incubation and acceleration integrated company, aiming to rely on the rich resources of the global team to support the new generation of digital economic and technological venture capital forces.

We continue to support industry growth and have early invested in and incubated multiple innovative projects and exchange platform tokens. With deep cooperation and market resources, we have achieved considerable returns.

Its businesses include digital investment funds, ADD Labs AI development platform, CryptoCat WEB3 traffic platform, RWA incubator and industrial drainage, etc.

The Furuigroup deeply cultivates the digital technology field and the industrial cooperation platform. With industry influence, professional technical team, global marketing resources and core cooperative institutional resources, it helps traditional enterprises embrace the new trend of digital economy at a high level and use new technology to layout new development.

Over the past 5 years, we have held over 14 large-scale investment summits in international hub cities such as Shanghai, Macau, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Haikou, Sanya, Seoul, Bangkok, etc., and have collaborated with almost all blockchain industry representative companies and top-tier institutions.