Roundtable: Diverse perspectives and intense discussions from Deng Di, Han Feng, Gong Fangxiong, and others

Author: BitKoala Koala Finance

BitKoala reported on September 1st that at the "RWA and Stablecoin" roundtable at the inaugural CRYPTO Raver conference, a diverse group of leaders, including early blockchain practitioners, traditional financial executives, real economy operators, and policy researchers, gathered together. They engaged in in-depth discussions around four core topics: "Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA)," "Stablecoin Technology Roadmap," "Decentralization and Policy Compliance," and "Hong Kong's Strategic Role." The discussions generated both consensus and a clash of viewpoints, presenting a panoramic view of the key contradictions and future directions in the current integration of the digital economy and traditional finance. 1. RWA: From "Virtual Islands" to "Physical Links," the Blockchain Revolution for $600 Trillion in Assets RWA (Tokenization of Real-World Assets) was a core topic of the conference. The leaders unanimously agreed that the essence of RWA lies in overcoming the limitations of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, which lack practical application scenarios. By combining the massive $600 trillion in assets in the traditional economy (stocks, bonds, and real estate totaling $300 trillion) with the global liquidity of blockchain, RWA is the key to a breakthrough in the digital economy. However, the specific approaches and value propositions presented by the leaders from different backgrounds differed markedly. 1. From the perspective of traditional finance: RWA is the “real salvation of virtual currency” Wang Ping, former rotating chairman of the All-China Mergers and Acquisitions Association and founder of the China-US Health Industry Investment and M&A Alliance, directly pointed out the “virtual shortcomings” of Bitcoin: “Bitcoin has been developed for more than ten years, but its market value is only 3-4 trillion US dollars, less than 1% of traditional real assets. The core problem is that it has no real application in the real world - people who hold Bitcoin will not spend it as money, but instead fall into the logic of ‘bad money driving out good money’.” In his view, the core value of RWA is “Finding a physical anchor for the virtual world”: “Whether it’s whiskey barrels, revenue from new energy projects, or hotel vouchers, as long as they are linked to real assets through tokenization, blockchain can be transformed from a ‘coin speculation game’ into a ‘tool serving the real economy.’” He specifically mentioned the case of MicroStrategy in the United States – “A software company on the verge of bankruptcy, its market value exceeded 100 billion by hoarding Bitcoin. This is a ‘single point explosion’ of virtual assets; and RWA can enable more traditional companies to obtain new financing channels through tokenization, which is ‘systemic empowerment.’”

2. Real Economy Perspective: RWA should “solve real problems” rather than “create concepts”

Zhang Yang, Scottish Whisky Investment Manager and Director of Lake Roman Group

Starting from the pain points of physical operators, he proposed the “pragmatic standard” of RWA: “The real economy is afraid of volatility and complexity – In the past, selling whiskey to Japan required signing complex cross-currency and cross-legal agreements; now, tokenizing the future earnings of the barrels through RWA not only simplifies the transaction process but also allows small investors to participate in high-end assets, expanding consensus and solving liquidity problems. He particularly emphasized the "two-tier structure" of RWA: "The bottom layer uses stablecoins to anchor the value of the physical object (such as the market pricing of whiskey), and the upper layer uses RWA governance tokens to carry business imagination (such as brand premium and channel expansion). This not only avoids the volatility risk of virtual currency, but also attracts people with consensus to participate in physical operations." Regarding the "quality of the assets on the chain", he said bluntly: "Entities don't care about 'everything can be'." 3. Early Blockchain Practitioners: The key to RWA is “get on board first, optimize later” Elastos co-founder Han Feng proposed the controversial “get on the chain first, talk later” view: “When the Internet first emerged in 1995, everyone said that “no content is a bubble”, but Chen Sheng and his team opened the Internet content era by scanning paper books and uploading them online. The same is true for RWA now—— Don’t worry about whether ‘on-chaining makes sense’; just move your assets onto the chain first, and future application scenarios will naturally emerge.” He even categorized Bitcoin itself as a “special RWA”: “Some people question whether Bitcoin is an asset. When I get pushed, I say, ‘At worst, treat Bitcoin like an RWA like real estate.’ It has a market value, consensus, and is ultimately valuable. The ultimate form of RWA in the future will be a ‘two-way anchoring of virtual assets (such as Bitcoin) and physical assets (such as real estate),’ rather than a single ‘physical on-chain’.” 4. From the Exchange’s Perspective: The Breakthrough Point of RWA Lies in “Non-Security Tokens” style="text-align: center;">Xu Hao, founder of Zero Entropy Protocol

But this view has also been questioned. Dr. Xu Hao pointed out the technical shortcomings: "Currently, blockchains are 'chain islands' - assets on the Bitcoin chain cannot flow to the Ethereum chain, and assets on the Ethereum chain cannot flow to other public chains. Decentralized stablecoins haven't even solved 'cross-chain circulation', so how can we talk about global use? The technology is not ready yet, and no matter how beautiful the ideal is, it cannot be realized."

3. The compromise position of the real economy: "Stability" is more important than "decentralization"

Mr. Li made a pragmatic assessment from the perspective of real business: "We don't need 'absolutely decentralized' stablecoins, we only need 'relatively stable and compliant' tools. For example, using a stablecoin anchored to the RMB for settlement can avoid exchange rate fluctuations and comply with domestic regulations. This is enough."

He proposed the concept of "conditional decentralization": "Thoughts can be boundless, but actions must have boundaries - in the United States, stablecoins are regulated by the SEC Supervision; in China, it must comply with the principle of 'the Party leads everything.' So-called 'decentralization' can only be a technical optimization within a compliance framework, not a confrontation with the existing system.

III. Sensitive Topic: Conflict between Decentralization and the Chinese System? Leaders' Compliance Thoughts

During the meeting, a scholar raised the most pointed question: "The core of Web3 is decentralization, but China is 'East, West, North, South, and Center, the Party leads everything, government, military, civilians, and education.' In this case, will decentralization lead to ideological and policy risks?" This question triggered the most in-depth discussion of the entire audience. Early Practitioners: “Pragmatism is More Important Than Ideology” Elastos co-founder Han Feng quoted Deng Xiaoping’s “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat” in response: “History is pragmatic – when Bitcoin first came out, people also said it was ‘anti-establishment’, but now even Biden admits that ‘cryptocurrency cannot be ignored’. Whether decentralized technology will be accepted in the future depends on whether it can solve problems – for example, if the Sino-US trade war cuts off SWIFT, can decentralized stablecoins help Chinese companies with cross-border clearing? If they can solve problems, they have value.” Compliance Expert: "Hong Kong serves as a buffer zone, piloting first before promoting expansion." Song Yuhai, Chairman of Junwei Capital, proposed a "regional tiered compliance" approach: "Web3 in Hong Kong and Web3 in mainland China are two separate systems, like Moutai and Wuliangye—different craftsmanship, but both excellent. Hong Kong could first pilot RWAs and stablecoins, such as global trading of digital RMB stablecoins and the integration of traditional asset and token exchanges. Once these models mature, they could then be integrated with the mainland economy. This would both mitigate direct risks and pave the way for RMB internationalization." He specifically mentioned the Shanghai Oriental Hub plan: "Visa-free, tariff-free, and firewall-free are designed to cope with extreme scenarios in the Sino-US trade war—if SWIFT were to be disrupted, Hong Kong's RWAs would be vulnerable." The leaders all agreed that Hong Kong plays a key role in “connecting China with the world” in the development of RWA and stablecoins. Its positioning goes far beyond being a “regional financial center” and is a “strategic buffer zone” and “testing ground” in the digital economy era.

1. Policy Experimentation: From “Not Daring to Talk” to “Active Layout”

<span leaf="" para",{"tagName":"p","attributes":{},"namespaceURI":"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"}]'>Song Yuhai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Junwei Capital, introduced the core predictions of the "Financial Source Universe Hong Kong Law": "We propose two directions in the book - one is a global stablecoin system with digital RMB as the core, and the other is a global digital asset trading platform based on RWA. Now these predictions are being implemented: RWA projects that could not be done in China before can now be done in Hong Kong; and Hong Kong is promoting stablecoin licenses that were not dared to be discussed before. He stressed the “bridge value” of Hong Kong: “Whatever Hong Kong can do, mainland China will most likely promote in the future - such as converting traditional assets into digital assets through mergers and acquisitions, and opening up channels between stock exchanges and token exchanges. These pilot projects can provide mainland China with “replicable experience” and ultimately serve the internationalization of the RMB.” ”

2. Sino-US buffer: The underlying signal of Eric Trump’s visit to Hong Kong

Regarding Eric Trump’s (son of former US President Trump) visit to Hong Kong, MINAX Chairman Gong Fangxiong interpreted it as “a victory for Hong Kong’s diplomacy”: “The Trump family has close ties with the US financial and real estate circles. Eric’s visit to Hong Kong is not only a business move, but also a signal of his father’s ‘pragmatic attitude towards China’ – the US has also realized that Hong Kong can serve as a ‘buffer zone’ between China and the US in the field of digital finance.”

leaf="">He further analyzed: "The United States consolidates the dollar's hegemony through centralized stablecoins, and China pilots RWA and digital RMB stablecoins through Hong Kong. The competition and cooperation between the two sides in Hong Kong can avoid direct confrontation and may instead form a 'new rule of digital finance' - this is Hong Kong's unique value."

V. Industry consensus and future challenges: the "key breakthrough points" of RWA and stablecoins

After discussion, the leaders reached some consensus amidst their differences and also clarified the core challenges facing the industry. 1. Three Major Consensuses: Value Consensus: RWA and stablecoins are the only way to “connect the virtual and the physical” – without RWA, blockchain is like a “tree without roots”; without stablecoins, RWA is like “goods without scales”. Together, they constitute the underlying infrastructure of the digital economy. Compliance Consensus: “Thoughts are boundless, actions are limited” – both decentralized technologies and RWA projects must be explored within the existing regulatory framework. Hong Kong’s “pilot model” is currently the optimal solution.

2. Two major challenges

• Technical challenges

  ：The blockchain "chain island" problem needs to be solved urgently - Dr. Xu pointed out that if assets of different public chains cannot be circulated across chains, the "global liquidity" of RWA and stablecoins will be empty talk, and technological breakthroughs (such as cross-chain protocols and AI algorithm adjustments) will be needed in the future to break through barriers. Cognitive Challenges: Traditional businesses still understand RWA as "cryptocurrency speculation"—Mr. Zhang mentioned that many brick-and-mortar owners are "terrified of blockchain" and need to understand the "practical value" of RWA, rather than its "speculative nature," through low-threshold models like "brand tokenization" and "consumer rights tokenization." From "conceptual debate" to "implementation," what will the next decade of the digital economy hold? The value of this roundtable discussion lies not only in presenting diverse perspectives on RWAs and stablecoins, but also in marking the industry's transition from "frenzied conceptual debate" to "rational implementation." The discussion among these leaders demonstrates that the future digital economy will be neither a "decentralized utopia" nor a "digital replica of traditional finance," but rather a balanced product of "technological innovation and compliance frameworks, virtual value and physical assets, and regional pilots and global collaboration."

  As Professor Han Feng said at the end of the meeting: "The rise of Bitcoin from 900 yuan to the present is not based on 'slogans', but on 'the ability to solve problems'. The future of RWA and stablecoins does not depend on 'whose route is more radical', but on 'who can truly help entities make money, help countries break through, and help the world establish a new financial order'."

  The pilot program in Hong Kong, the exploration of RMB stablecoins, the practice of RWA non-security tokens... These ongoing attempts may be the "key to the answer" to the next decade of the digital economy.

  

  Roundtable moderator: Dai Shanshan, CEO of BitKoala and Executive Dean of RWA College

  Before the end of this roundtable meeting, the moderator, Dai Shanshan, CEO of BitKoala, raised a suspenseful question: Is the withdrawal of Hong Kong lawmakers from the Bitcoin Asia Conference and their avoidance of meeting Trump's son a sign of regulatory vigilance or a subtle expression of geopolitical financial game?

  The withdrawal of Hong Kong lawmakers from the Bitcoin Asia Conference and their avoidance of meeting Trump's son are most likely subtle expressions of geopolitical financial game. Amidst current tensions between China and the US, the Trump family's crypto activities are closely tied to relevant US strategies. This move by Hong Kong lawmakers aims to prevent Hong Kong from being drawn into a sensitive position in the Sino-US rivalry and safeguard its neutrality and stability within the global financial landscape. While regulatory vigilance regarding the uncertainties of the crypto industry and the potential risks of Trump family-related projects cannot be completely ruled out, geopolitical factors are likely the primary factor. The panelists did not respond directly to this question, instead stating that it was a suitable topic for lunch. This roundtable concluded successfully. Stay tuned for the next conference: Crypto Raver Asia II, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea on September 22nd.

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