Author: Liang Yu

Editor: Zhao Yidan

In September 2025, the two major financial centers in Asia unveiled their respective tokenization strategies almost in the same week. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the expansion of the third batch of the Ensemble sandbox to include three major asset classes: green bonds, carbon credits, and private equity funds. Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority of Singapore officially allowed REITs to be traded directly on-chain and opened up investment channels for retail investors with a reduced minimum investment threshold of $10.

Behind this simultaneous "sandbox competition" is the different interpretations of the future direction of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization by Hong Kong and Singapore. As the global RWA market rapidly develops, the path choices of Hong Kong and Singapore not only concern their own positioning but will also influence the flow of global capital in Asia.

Policy Promotion: Ensemble Project and Tokenization Infrastructure

According to a report by China Securities Network on September 17, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, John Lee, further clarified the development path of the tokenization market in the latest policy address. The Monetary Authority will continue to promote the Ensemble project, specifically including encouraging commercial banks to launch tokenized deposits and conduct trading settlements with real tokenized assets (such as tokenized money market funds), while assisting the government in regularizing the issuance of tokenized bonds and encouraging banks to strengthen risk management through the regulatory sandbox.

Additionally, the report proposed enriching gold investment tools, supporting the issuance of gold funds and the development of tokenized gold investment products. The core goal of the Ensemble project is to allow the industry to explore the establishment of a new generation of financial infrastructure using blockchain technology through sandbox experiments, which is seen by the CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Ashley Alder, as a key framework for promoting the scalable development of the tokenization ecosystem.

Looking back at the 2024 policy address, tokenization was already a key topic. At that time, the Monetary Authority was conducting sandbox experiments on the tokenization of electronic bills of lading to reduce fraud risks in trade financing. According to data revealed by the Monetary Authority's president, Eddie Yue, as of mid-July 2025, 22 banks in Hong Kong had been approved to sell digital asset-related products, 13 banks could sell tokenized securities, and 5 banks provided digital asset custody services. In the first half of 2025, the total transaction volume of bank digital asset-related products and tokenized assets reached HKD 26.1 billion, a significant year-on-year increase of 233%, surpassing the total for the entire previous year, demonstrating strong growth momentum.

Hong Kong Strategy: A Closed-loop Ecosystem Anchored in Mainland Asset Pools

Hong Kong's RWA strategy features distinct institutional design and sovereign backing characteristics. The Monetary Authority has successfully assisted the government in issuing two batches of large-scale tokenized green bonds through the "Evergreen Program," with a multi-currency bond issued in February 2024 totaling HKD 6 billion, greatly enhancing settlement efficiency and shortening the T+5 settlement cycle to T+1. This improvement in efficiency not only proves the practical benefits of tokenization but also adds new leverage for Hong Kong as a green finance center.

On this basis, Hong Kong further expanded the Ensemble sandbox to include areas such as green bonds, carbon credits, and private equity funds. This is not just an expansion in scale but a significant step towards transforming Hong Kong's financial ecosystem from traditional to digital and global. Specific projects include the on-chain issuance of a $1 billion green bond jointly conducted by HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Ant Group, as well as the collaboration between JD Technology and the Sui public chain to split green certificates from a photovoltaic project in Brazil into on-chain certificates, marking Hong Kong's innovation and leadership in the fields of green finance and cross-border financing. According to a report by Sina Finance on September 14, 2025, these initiatives further solidified Hong Kong's leading position in the international sustainable finance sector.

Notably, on September 14, Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, published an article titled "Building a Sustainable Future Together" on the Financial Secretary's official website, stating that all sandbox projects must connect to HKD stablecoin settlements. This requirement is far from a technical decision; it is a core element of Hong Kong's digital financial infrastructure. By building a settlement layer centered on HKD stablecoins, Hong Kong ensures that when the market scales up in the future, its core settlement layer will be firmly in the hands of the Monetary Authority, a strategic approach that undoubtedly establishes a long-term competitive advantage for Hong Kong in the global RWA tokenization field.

Singapore Path: Open Retail and Cross-chain Standards

In contrast to Hong Kong's "closed-loop" thinking, Singapore has chosen a distinctly open path. The "Project Guardian" led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is characterized by its collaborative model of "inviting guests." This initiative brings together over 40 top global financial institutions and international regulatory partners such as the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and Japan's Financial Services Agency, showcasing its ambition to build an open ecosystem.

According to a report by Lianhe Zaobao in September 2025, the MAS has allowed REITs to be traded directly on-chain and permitted retail investors to participate, significantly reducing the minimum subscription amount from SGD 5,000 to $10. This move not only lowers the investment threshold but also bridges the gap between institutional and retail markets, marking a substantial step forward in Singapore's openness in the digital asset market. Such policies effectively reduce participation barriers, enhance market liquidity, and further strengthen global investors' trust and willingness to engage with the Singapore market.

Under the policy dividends, market innovations have quickly followed. For example, according to CoinDesk on August 21, Singapore's largest commercial bank, DBS Bank, has issued tokenized structured notes on the Ethereum public chain, lowering the traditional investment threshold from $100,000 to $1,000. This innovation provides investors with a richer array of asset choices and allows more retail investors to participate in the digitalization and globalization of traditional financial instruments.

On the technical front, Singapore released the "Asset Tokenization Technology White Paper" 2.0 and submitted a "Cross-chain Interoperability" three-layer architecture to the Bank for International Settlements, aiming to position Singapore as a global standard hub for asset tokenization through these initiatives. The strategic goal of MAS is to make Singapore a neutral and trustworthy hub where different digital asset networks can converge and interconnect.

Market Response: Differentiated Layouts of Institutional Voting with Feet

As the policies in Hong Kong and Singapore gradually take effect, the market has responded directly. Financial institutions are choosing markets that best align with their strategic layouts based on their business characteristics. HSBC has adopted a dual-headquarters operation model, assisting Foshan City Investment in bringing $300 million worth of green bonds on-chain in Hong Kong while managing REITs in Singapore and aiming for a target of SGD 1 billion within the year. According to a report by Sina Finance on September 14, 2025, this division of labor reflects institutions' clear understanding of the advantages of both locations: Hong Kong is suitable for assets related to the mainland, while Singapore is more suitable for global retail products.

Ant Group's layout is more strategically flexible: it has obtained licenses 1, 4, and 9 in Hong Kong specifically for handling "Mainland Assets - Hong Kong Issuance" business, while in Singapore, it has applied for a payment license to serve as an XSGD settlement channel, reflecting the company's precise strategy in responding to different market demands.

JPMorgan Onyx has chosen to conduct retail-level REITs business in Singapore, where regulation is transparent and standards are easily exportable, while remaining in the institutional pilot phase in Hong Kong to avoid uncertainties related to foreign exchange and stablecoins. CMB International's USD money market fund has completed RWA tokenization through multi-chain deployment, becoming the world's first case of a Hong Kong-Singapore mutual recognition fund on-chain, combining Hong Kong's asset advantages with Singapore's technological platform to provide a new paradigm for collaboration between the two cities.

Future Outlook: Competition or Complementarity?

On the surface, Hong Kong and Singapore are engaged in a fierce race, but in essence, it is a collision of two financial philosophies: "compliance + assets" versus "standards + technology." In the short term, Hong Kong may gain a leading position due to its deep pool of mainland assets and the early push for the tokenization of Hong Kong stocks in 2026; meanwhile, Singapore, with its broad participation in the retail market and forward-looking layout of cross-chain standards, may also leverage its international advantages to catch up.

In the medium to long term, the asset side and the standard side will inevitably converge. Hong Kong is expected to become a global digital issuance platform for high-quality mainland assets, while Singapore may become the core hub for cross-chain standards and retail distribution. The ultimate winner will not be a single city but rather the ecosystem that first successfully navigates the "assets - standards - funds" closed loop.

For investors, choosing the right track is more critical than choosing the city. Funds that prefer high returns may lean towards Hong Kong, while global asset management companies seeking stability and liquidity may consider Singapore as their RWA testing ground.

With continuous technological advancements, the "dual helix" of AI and blockchain is driving the reconstruction of RWA infrastructure. Ant Group's Layer 2 chain supports 100,000 TPS transactions, making "millisecond-level trusted transactions" possible; the Chainlink DECO protocol combines zero-knowledge proof technology to verify the authenticity of off-chain assets while protecting privacy, providing new technical support for the development of RWA tokenization.

As technology and markets continue to evolve, the landscape of digital finance is being redrawn. The explorations of Hong Kong and Singapore are like two parallel rivers that will eventually converge into the same ocean. In the next decade, we may witness not just the victory of a particular city but the birth of an interconnected global RWA ecosystem.

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