Hong Kong Sandbox plans to focus on the Bund conference, and RWA becomes a new theme for China's Web3?

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曼昆律师事务所2024/09/06 03:31

By:曼昆律师事务所

On September 5, 2024, the highly anticipated "Inclusion · The Bund Conference" officially kicked off at the Huangpu World Expo Park in Shanghai. For Web3 practitioners, the most important thing at this world-class technology event is the afternoon theme forum "Talking about the Future: The'Entity 'of Web3 Digital Dreams" .

The forum was jointly organized by Ant Digital Technology and Foresight News, during which many industry bosses shared their themes and had roundtable discussions. Among them, we heard some familiar voices, such as:

Hong Kong Sandbox plans to focus on the Bund conference, and RWA becomes a new theme for China's Web3? image 0

* Source: The Bund Conference official website

Longxin Group Chairperson Xu Changjun delivered a keynote speech titled "Exploring the'New 'Trajectory of Investment and Unleashing the'Energy' of New Energy".

ZAN CEO Zhang Chenguang delivered a keynote speech on "Exploration and Practice of DT RWA Empowering New Energy Industry in the VUCA Era".

Xiao Gang, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former chairperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, delivered a speech titled "New Power of Financial Technology, New Engine of Digital Economy".

It is not difficult to find that in this theme forum, RWA has become the "main theme" of Web3 practitioners' discussion. As Xiao Gang said: In the changes brought by Web3, RWA is a bridge connecting the digital economy and the real economy, establishing a value mapping with the physical assets and IP products existing in the real world, and enhancing the liquidity and transactionability of real assets.

In fact, as early as the end of August, a news report from Hong Kong, China ignited the topic of RWA. On August 28, 2024, China's HKMA (referred to as "HKMA") took another step to promote innovation in encrypted finance and launched a sandbox program called "Ensemble". According to the HKMA press release, the Ensemble project sandbox aims to use experimental tokenized currency to promote interbank settlement and focus on researching tokenized asset trading.

Hong Kong Sandbox plans to focus on the Bund conference, and RWA becomes a new theme for China's Web3? image 1

* Source: Hong Kong Monetary Authority official website

At the same time, the HKMA announced that the first phase of the trial will cover four major tokenized asset use case themes, including: Fixed Income and Mutual Fund, Liquidity Management, Green and Sustainable Finance, and Trade and Supply Chain Financing.

The news has sparked discussions and attention from Web3 practitioners on the Hong Kong RWA track. Lawyer Mankiw hereby shares his analysis of the sandbox itself and its impact on the industry in this article.

Vision behind the Ensemble

It is no exaggeration to say that this plan marks an important milestone in the development of Hong Kong's digital asset ecosystem, bringing revolutionary changes to the development and regulation of financial transactions. The Ensemble sandbox envisioned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is not only a regulatory tool, but also a dynamic testing platform where innovative ideas are transformed into practical solutions. The vision of Ensemble is closely linked to the technical testing phase, and each test is the cornerstone of achieving this broader goal.

In recent years, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been very active in exploring the potential of digital currency and new technologies, especially in the field of central bank digital currency (CBDC), with efforts such as the mBridge project and e-HKD being particularly significant. However, the HKMA also recognizes that the future financial world will not only be shaped by CBDC. Tokenization uses Blockchain technology to digitize assets, which is another key part of this puzzle. By tokenizing commercial bank currency and real assets, financial transactions can be simplified, creating new innovative opportunities. Therefore, integrating CBDC and asset tokenization into the Ensemble sandbox reflects the MAS's clear strategy to explore the synergy effects between these innovations, ensuring that these technologies complement each other in creating a more robust and versatile digital financial ecosystem.

The main purposes of Ensemble can be summarized as follows, each of which aims to promote the understanding and application of tokenization in finance.

Explore application scenarios: Allow participants to experiment with tokenized assets in a secure environment and explore various applications without immediately facing the pressure of full implementation.

Technical Testing: Testing the compatibility between different digital assets, tokenized deposits, and CBDC. This stage is crucial to ensure the robustness of the technology and prepare for wider adoption.

Establish industry standards: Establish common industry benchmarks for tokenization, which is crucial for the development of technology. By facilitating the entire lifecycle of tokenized asset transactions from creation to transaction to payment and settlement, Sandbox helps participants understand the actual impact of tokenization and its potential to solve real-world challenges, such as its application in supply chain financing.

Solving real-world challenges: Sandbox promotes innovative applications aimed at solving practical problems in the financing field, especially in areas such as trade and supply chain finance. By addressing these pain points, Ensemble is helping to make tokenization a viable option for enterprises.

Four themes of asset tokenization

The Ensemble Sandbox project of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has identified four key themes for preliminary experiments, each representing an important part of the financial sector. These main themes have been carefully selected because they represent the key areas where asset tokenization may have the most profound impact.

Fixed Income and Mutual Funds: This topic explores how tokenization is changing traditional investment tools, making them more accessible and efficient. By creating digital representations of bonds or Mutual Funds, the financial industry can reduce settlement time, lower costs, and enhance liquidity, providing new opportunities for investors.

Liquidity Management: Tokenization has the potential to revolutionize liquidity management by allowing assets to be split and traded on digital platforms. This could lead to more dynamic and efficient liquidity management, especially where quick access to funds is critical.

Green and Sustainable Finance: The MAS also focuses on how tokenization can support green and sustainable finance initiatives. By tokenizing assets such as green bonds or carbon credits, the financial sector can enhance transparency and traceability, ensuring that funds are effectively allocated to environmental projects.

Trade and Supply Chain Finance: Tokenization can solve major pain points in trade and supply chain finance by simplifying the process of tracking and transferring ownership of goods and financial assets. This can improve the efficiency and transparency of the supply chain, reduce fraud risks, and enhance overall market confidence.

Tokenized real assets

Imagine you own a piece of real estate worth $1 million. Through tokenization, you can convert the property into 1 million digital tokens, each representing a small portion of the property's ownership. These tokens can be traded, sold, or even used as collateral for other financial transactions in the blockchain ecosystem. It can be seen as a digital representation of a real asset that can be easily traded, transferred, or used for various financial transactions in a secure decentralized network.

Tokenization of real assets is one of the key experimental areas of Ensemble sandbox. Through experimentation with real assets, sandbox can test the practical operability and advantages of introducing traditional assets into the digital field. This not only conforms to the vision of the HKMA, but also lays the foundation for future development in a broader financial landscape, such as:

Enhance liquidity. Traditional real-world assets like real estate tend to be illiquid, meaning they can be difficult to sell quickly. Tokenization allows these assets to be split into smaller tokens that are easier to trade, improving liquidity.

Increase accessibility. Tokenization makes asset classes that were previously inaccessible to many investors more widely accessible. For example, people with limited capital can purchase a small portion of high-value assets (such as real estate) through tokens.

Reduce transaction costs. Blockchain technology can reduce the cost of trading and transferring assets as it eliminates the need for intermediaries such as brokers or custodial agents.

Global cooperation and future prospects

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of Ensemble is its potential to facilitate cross-border transfers. Currently, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has demonstrated this capability by successfully collaborating with the Bank of France, connecting their sandbox systems to perform atomic cross-border settlements. This is just one example of Ensemble laying the foundation for a more interconnected global financial system.

In short, Ensemble Sandbox is a microcosm of the future digital financial landscape. By combining cutting-edge technology, strategic cooperation, and practical applications, it not only advances the vision of the HKMA, but also sets a global standard for digital asset innovation.

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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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