RWA Reaches New Heights: Financing Costs, Thresholds, and Trust Mechanisms Transformed by Blockchain | Kr Finance
Author | Wang Hanyu
Editor | Huang Yida
Following the real - world assets of charging piles and photovoltaic, computing power assets have finally witnessed the issuance of the first phase of Real - World Asset (RWA) tokenization.
On the 8th of this month, Aoruid successfully completed the first - phase issuance of RWA based on AI server assets, with an asset scale of tens of millions of RMB. Technically, this project is supported by Ant Digital Technology. Relying on AntChain technology, it has achieved the on - chain recording of AI server operation information. It ensures the security, transparency, and immutability of on - chain asset data, and guarantees the transparency and verifiability of returns.
Investors responded positively to Aoruid's RWA issuance. On August 11th, the second trading day after the RWA issuance, Aoruid's stock price soared by 10% in a single day. The performance of relevant entities in the stock market indirectly proves the market's attention to and recognition of RWA projects.
In the previous year, Ant Digital Technology assisted Langxin Group and GCL New Energy in completing the RWA issuance of new - energy charging piles and photovoltaic green assets respectively. Aoruid's issuance of the first - phase AI server RWA marks Ant Digital Technology's first foray into RWA of assets outside the new - energy sector.
Since gradually entering the domestic financial market about a year ago and with the introduction of stablecoin bills in the United States and Hong Kong, RWA, as an application for on - chain asset transfer and trading, has been gaining popularity. So, what is RWA? Which asset classes are suitable for RWA issuance? And how does it differ from traditional financing methods?
What is RWA?
RWA is the acronym for "Real World Assets tokenization", which can be translated as "tokenization of real - world assets". It refers to the process of converting real - world assets, such as real estate, accounts receivable, and carbon quotas, into digital tokens through blockchain technology, enabling them to have the capabilities of trading, splitting, and circulation that digital assets possess.
Put simply, RWA can transform those fixed, illiquid, and high - cost physical assets in the traditional sense into cryptocurrencies, allowing them to be purchased in small amounts, traded quickly, and circulated across borders.
This model transforms traditional financial assets and physical assets into on - chain digital tokens through blockchain technology, opening up new financing channels for original equity holders and providing new asset - allocation products for investors.
So, how can original equity holders of new - energy and other assets achieve the digital on - chain trading of their self - held assets at this stage?
Observing the issuance of domestic RWA projects, this process is usually supported by a technology partner. For example, Ant Digital Technology, which has completed four RWA projects so far, released the Web3 product "Two Chains and One Bridge" in October 2024.
"Two Chains and One Bridge" specifically refers to the "Asset Chain", the "Trading Chain", and the "AntChain Trusted Cross - Chain Bridge". The application of the "Asset Chain" in the Chinese mainland enables enterprises' physical assets to be digitized and standardized, thus transforming them into tradable financial products, which is a typical process of converting non - standard assets into standard ones. The "Trading Chain" focuses on tokenizing funds, especially those from traditional financial institutions, achieving efficient fund transfer and trading through blockchain technology.
However, at that time, due to the unclear regulatory attitude towards virtual - asset trading, compliance became the primary concern in the industry.
In less than a year thereafter, certain progress has been made in the compliance construction of RWA. For example, the Technical Specification for On - Chain Real - World Assets jointly formulated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and more than 20 enterprises systematically proposes the technical requirements for the entire process of data on - chaining for the first time, covering key links such as asset rights confirmation, data collection, information disclosure, and smart - contract execution. It is regarded as the "quasi - 5G standard" in the RWA field.
On August 1st this year, the "Stablecoin Ordinance" in Hong Kong officially came into effect, establishing a licensing system for fiat - backed stablecoin issuers. In RWA business, stablecoins are usually used as value - circulation carriers. The introduction of this ordinance provides clear regulatory basis for token issuance and trading in relevant businesses, further reducing compliance risks.
On the 7th of this month, institutions such as the Hong Kong Web3.0 Standardization Association and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University jointly released the "Research Report on the Industrial Development of RWA - Industry Chapter 2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), systematically proposing the standards and framework for asset screening. It clarifies that value stability, clear legal rights confirmation, and off - chain data verifiability are the three thresholds that assets need to meet for large - scale RWA implementation, providing important references for enterprises to screen tokenizable assets.
According to the standards in the Report, which asset classes in the current market have the greatest potential to be "packaged" for RWA issuance?
Which asset classes are suitable for RWA?
The Report points out that in practice, the application scenarios of RWA continue to expand, and it has been initially applied to the following five mainstream asset classes:
1. Financial assets such as gold, bonds, accounts receivable, and funds;
2. New - energy assets such as charging piles and photovoltaic;
3. Real estate such as hotels and properties;
4. Intangible assets such as carbon credits, data, and intellectual property;
5. Computing power assets such as GPU hardware.
Take the computing power asset RWA recently completed by Aoruid as an example. The underlying assets are the AI servers held by Shenzhen Zhisuanli Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Aoruid.
Computing power data centers are highly digitized. Through cloud platforms, data such as resource usage, computing hours, and revenue distribution of computing power can be monitored in real - time, and the revenue is transparent and verifiable, which is naturally compatible with the requirements of asset trustworthiness on the RWA chain. With the wave of the AI era, the scale of the computing power market is rising steadily, which is also highly consistent with the requirements of RWA.
Real estate is a high - quality asset suitable for RWA because it has the dual attributes of "physical asset + revenue carrier". On the one hand, countries around the world have established relatively mature property - rights registration systems for real estate, with clear asset rights confirmation; on the other hand, the revenue sources of real estate, such as rent and asset appreciation, are relatively predictable and quantifiable. Traditional real estate has a high value and is difficult to split. Therefore, by using RWA to convert real estate into digital tokens, it is expected to precisely solve its liquidity dilemma.
For example, in the first real - estate tokenization case in the United States, RealT tokenized local residential properties. Users can hold 0.001% of the equity of a residential building with a minimum investment of only $50 and participate in rent distribution, which lowers the investment threshold and increases market activity.
Financial assets, such as bonds, funds, stocks, precious metals, and commodities, are also ideal targets for RWA due to their natural digital genes and compliance foundation. For example, the tokenized US Treasury bond fund OUSG launched by Ondo ranks among the top in terms of TVL (Total Value Locked) on global RWA platforms.
In other emerging fields, such as AI computing power, with the "rigid demand" of the AI industry and trustworthy "digital genes", they also become ideal anchor assets for RWA.
However, while the Report screens out a batch of asset classes suitable for RWA issuance, on the other hand, it also means that in the early stage of RWA's rise, the view of "everything can be RWA" held by some voices now seems overly optimistic.
The Report clearly points out that not all assets are suitable for RWA tokenization, and "everything can be RWA" is a false proposition. Bian Zhuoqun, the vice - president of Ant Group and the president of Ant Digital Technology's blockchain business, also mentioned that in the past year, Ant has rejected many RWA requests for assets, including agricultural products, red wine, and high - end paintings. Assets such as artworks lack a fair evaluation standard and cannot meet the requirement of "value stability".
How does RWA change costs, thresholds, and trust mechanisms?
From the asset perspective, RWA has the potential to revitalize "unaffordable and immovable" dormant assets. From the perspective of both investors and financiers, RWA is also expected to address the pain points of high financing costs, high investment thresholds, and long monitoring intervals in the traditional model.
First, on the financing side, through smart contracts, RWA greatly simplifies the traditional financing process. Traditional financing relies on offline research and the participation of intermediary institutions, with numerous procedures. For example, when an enterprise issues a credit bond, it needs to go through procedures such as underwriting by a securities firm, due diligence by a law firm, verification by an auditing institution, and approval by an exchange. Intermediary fees account for 2% - 5% of the financing amount, and it usually takes 3 - 6 months from preparation to implementation.
Even for bank loans, which have a relatively streamlined process, enterprises need to submit financial information and undergo collateral evaluation, and the approval period is usually 1 - 2 months.
With RWA relying on blockchain smart contracts, the entire process can be digitized, significantly reducing intermediary links and manual intervention. Asset rights confirmation can be verified on the chain by connecting to official databases. Token issuance and revenue distribution are automatically executed by smart contracts, and information disclosure is uploaded to the chain in real - time without offline reporting.
For example, in the second - generation battery - swapping RWA project jointly launched by Xunying Chuxing and Ant Digital Technology in April this year, the financing was completed and the funds arrived in just 3 days, and the financing interest rate dropped from 15% to below 8%.
Second, on the investment side, traditional financing has high requirements for investors' qualifications and capital scale. For example, the minimum investment amount for bank wealth - management products and trust products is usually 50,000 - 1,000,000 RMB, and that for credit bonds is often 1,000,000 RMB. Equity financing is only open to qualified investors with a net asset of over 10,000,000 RMB, making it difficult for retail investors to participate.
Through asset digital splitting, RWA transforms high - value assets into small - value standardized tokens, enabling financiers to reach a large number of ordinary investors globally , significantly expanding the scope of fundraising. For example, in the second - generation battery - swapping RWA project of Xunying Chuxing, the future revenue of the million - level battery - swapping stations is split into digital assets worth 10 RMB each, directly lowering the minimum investment amount to 10 RMB. Ordinary investors can subscribe through compliant platforms.
In addition, the distributed - ledger technology of blockchain ensures that all transaction records cannot be tampered with and asset data can be checked in real - time, which also improves audit efficiency and to some extent, can enhance data credibility.
For example, in the battery - swapping asset field, the mortgage rate of equipment by banks is usually only 30% - 50%. The lack of real - time data verification often leads to the "undervaluation" of high - quality assets. However, blockchain can upload equipment operation data in real - time, allowing investors to intuitively monitor the operation status of each battery asset, changing the pain point of the traditional financing method, which relies on quarterly or semi - annual financial reports to understand project operation and has a weak trust mechanism.
Yang Tao, the deputy director of the National Institute of Finance and Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also mentioned in a recent article that RWA improves transaction efficiency and transparency. On - chain trading can achieve global accessibility, supporting 7×24 - hour cross - border trading, thus attracting global capital participation; at the same time, based on the blockchain's recording of the entire process of asset transactions, it strengthens transaction transparency and security, reducing the risks of tampering and fraud.
From the reduction of financing costs, the breakthrough in the universalization of investment thresholds, to the technical improvement of the trust mechanism, RWA is breaking the limitations of the traditional financing model. Although it has significant advantages, currently, the regulatory progress of virtual assets varies among countries around the world, indicating that compliance challenges remain the main risk and obstacle for many dormant assets to conduct cross - border financing globally through RWA.
Yang Tao also pointed out that structured financial innovation will bring many risks and challenges, and specifically mentioned that multi - level nesting like financial derivatives may lead to information opacity and market complexity, magnify market fluctuations, and affect financial stability.
From the perspective of asset attributes, RWA has certain similarities with asset - backed securitization (ABS). One of the main purposes of designing ABS is to convert illiquid and stagnant assets into tradable securities through a specific transaction structure. However, while improving asset liquidity, the problems of its complex structure and difficulty in regulation have become increasingly prominent.
For example, during the subprime - mortgage crisis in 2008, a large number of ABSs with subprime loans as underlying assets emerged and were widely sold to global investors through the financial network. This process not only significantly increased the regulatory difficulty due to the complex structure of ABS itself but also led to the spread of subprime - mortgage risks from the United States to the global capital market due to cross - regional asset flow. Therefore, the complex structure and difficult regulation of subprime - mortgage securitization are one of the important reasons for the rapid evolution of the subprime - mortgage crisis into a global financial crisis.
The industry clearly takes this as a lesson. The newly released Report mentioned above points out that RWA is still in a stage where "overlapping" and "blank" regulations coexist. Regulatory authorities can, based on the existing regulatory systems for securities, commodities, and credit, clarify the logic of classified regulation according to the attributes of RWA's underlying assets, revenue structure, and market circulation degree, and establish a "penetrating + function - oriented" compliance path to connect the entire process of asset digitization, assetization, and tokenization.
Data from RWA.xyz shows that as of the end of July 2025, the total market value of global on - chain RWA assets has exceeded $25 billion (excluding stablecoins). Institutions such as the Boston Consulting Group predict that by 2030, the RWA market scale is expected to exceed $10 trillion. How to find the balance between risk and security while expanding is an urgent problem to be solved in this blockchain - based financial innovation.
*Disclaimer:
The content of this article only represents the author's views.
The market is risky, and investment should be cautious. In any case, the information in this article or the opinions expressed do not constitute investment advice for anyone. Before making an investment decision, if necessary, investors must consult professionals and make careful decisions. We have no intention to provide underwriting services or any services that require specific qualifications or licenses for the trading parties.
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