Hong Kong Stock RWA Gold Rush: Listed companies are scrambling to "go on-chain", a digital migration of assets worth 3 billion.

Since 2025, Hong Kong's Capital Market has ignited a “RWA gold rush.” Against the backdrop of the acceleration of the compliance process for the crypto industry and RWA (Real World Assets), a large number of Hong Kong listed companies with traditional financial licenses, physical assets or existing business foundations are embedding RWA tokenization into their core strategies, planning to embark on a journey of value reshaping from “off-chain” to “on-chain.” These companies are no longer satisfied with traditional asset operation models, but are attempting to leverage Blockchain technology to “awaken” dormant assets, endowing them with new Liquidity and market value.

Hong Kong Stock RWA Two Major Camps: Product Issuers and Business Service Providers

Currently, publicly listed companies participating in the RWA ecosystem can be divided into two categories. One category is the product issuers, who anchor their products with their own assets; the other category is the service providers, who offer technical, financial, consulting, and other RWA business services. PANews has compiled a list of recently active RWA concept publicly listed companies in the market to see what new financial stories they are telling.

Product Issuer: From “Sleeping Assets” to “Liquid Tokens”

The product issuer anchors its core assets, activates existing assets through tokenization practices, enhances their liquidity, and explores new business models.

Coolpad Group: Property Management Giant Launches RWA Experiment. As a company focused on the smartphone business, Coolpad Group has faced performance challenges in recent years, while holding a large amount of property assets. The announcement pointed out that as of the end of 2024, its investment property value is as high as HKD 3.151 billion, but the company's market value has long been below the net asset book value. To address this predicament, Coolpad Group established the “Real World Asset Tokenization Division,” planning to tokenize its two core property assets – Coolpad Building located in Nanshan, Shenzhen, and Coolpad Technology Ecological Park located in Songshan Lake, Dongguan.

New Cities in China: Leveraging alliances and licensed platforms, focusing on commercial real estate tokenization. By the end of 2024, the company's investment property value is estimated to reach approximately 4.337 billion RMB, yet the company's market value has long remained below the net asset book value. New Cities in China has adopted a two-step approach: first, on July 30, it participated as a joint initiator in the establishment of the “Hong Kong RWA Global Industry Alliance”; secondly, the company, on September 15, partnered with the licensed trading platform EXIOIOIO in Hong Kong and other asset portfolios, which will provide token issuance services.

Delin Holdings: A microcosm of the migration of traditional finance “on-chain.” It is a financial company holding licenses No. 1, 4, 6, and 9 from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Delin Holdings' entry into RWA is not starting from scratch, but rather treating it as an “upgrade package” for traditional financial services, establishing a strategic partnership by purchasing shares in the RWA fintech company Asseto, and bringing its existing asset management, securities trading, and family office business “on-chain.”

Guofu Quantum: A “Asset Tokenization” Player in Cross-Border Transformation. Primarily engaged in financial services, it is actively laying out the quantum technology industry and has formulated a “Quantum + Digital Asset” dual-track strategy. In its announcement, it defined its entry into RWA as “seizing the early access to on-chain asset tokenization.” Guofu Quantum has indirectly acquired shares in RWA technology service provider Rtree through a wholly-owned subsidiary to tokenize its assets, including high-value artworks, trade receivables, and supply chain operational assets.

Business Service Provider: The “Enabler” in the Ecosystem

Business service providers typically span various industries, using tokenization as a tool, not just for tokenizing assets, but also leveraging their strengths in fintech, industrial resources, or compliance licensing to provide critical technology and service support for the RWA ecosystem.

HuaJian Medical: Building a RWA ecosystem in vertical fields. HuaJian Medical's RWA strategy is unique, not only limited to asset tokenization but also committed to constructing a vertical “IVDNewCo Exchange” ecosystem, with “high-tech assets of medical innovative drugs” and “intellectual property of medical innovative drugs” as core assets, and issuing the stablecoin “IVDDollar” (IVDD) as a supporting measure.

Yunfeng Finance: Focused on building institutional-grade “new financial infrastructure.” The entry of Yunfeng Finance symbolizes the recognition of RWA by top traditional financial institutions. Its strategic approach is not to tokenize a certain asset class, but to directly invest in underlying public chains, such as Pharos, which focuses on constructing application scenarios for “institutional-grade real-world assets,” and collaborates with tech giants to “co-build RWA financial new infrastructure.”

JetLi Trading Treasure: The “Paver” of RWA Infrastructure. It is a fintech company that provides financial trading platform services and holds Type 1 and Type 7 licenses from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. JetLi Trading Treasure's RWA strategy involves entering the service segment of the RWA ecosystem by establishing joint ventures or forming partnerships, fulfilling the role of an “infrastructure provider.”

Three Major Motivations for Hong Kong Listed Companies to Enter RWA

From the above cases, it can be seen that the common motivations for Hong Kong listed companies to enter the RWA space are diverse and intertwined, together forming the underlying logic of the RWA “gold rush.”

Asset Revitalization: Addressing Valuation and Liquidity Dilemmas. A significant number of Hong Kong-listed companies have market capitalizations that have long been below their net asset book values, with a substantial amount of physical assets on the balance sheet that possess considerable book value but poor liquidity. RWA tokenization will establish a market-based real-time pricing mechanism for physical assets that originally lacked liquidity, allowing their value to be reflected more objectively and promptly in the secondary market, aiding companies in reassessing their market capitalizations.

Strategic Transformation: Weaving a “Lifebuoy” Amidst Performance Decline and Industry Downturn. When a publicly listed company's traditional business growth stagnates, seeking a second growth curve becomes a common necessity. RWA, as a frontier field at the intersection of the crypto economy and traditional finance, harbors immense potential market space, capable of helping companies shed the negative image of their original industry's decline and re-paint a new blueprint for the capital market centered around “innovation and high growth.”

A new narrative of “reverse merger” in the digital age: some low market capitalization small listed companies are actively entering RWA, not to develop RWA business, but to use RWA to “reshape identity.” By embracing RWA, these companies can leap from an ordinary or even underperforming “shell” to become “pioneers of virtual assets” or “innovators in digital finance.”

RWA serves as a “bridge” connecting traditional finance and the crypto market. In addition to the aforementioned Hong Kong-listed companies, more than a dozen other companies, such as Sun Hung Kai Properties, Kaisa Group, and Zhongying Game, are also making their way into the market. However, the road from “intention” to “implementation” is still fraught with obstacles. Most Hong Kong-listed companies are making “voluntary announcements” and clearly state that they are “not legally binding” or “still in the exploratory stage,” indicating that the implementation of RWA business still holds many uncertainties.