Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference | Taiwan RWA needs to break into the international market by embracing public chains and providing sufficient incentives as the key.
At the 10th Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference on September 2, co-chair of the Digital Asset Association Danny Chong, Executive Advisor Ethan Yang from Bay Valley Technology (BSOS), Jane Liu, Head of Institutional Growth at Ethena Labs, and Henry Zhang, Founder and CEO of RWA Digital Asset Exchange DigiFT, gathered to focus on the new opportunities for "real-world assets on the blockchain". The forum not only discussed whether Taiwan could transform from a "financial product importing country" to a "financial product exporter", but also delved into the discrepancies between industry positioning, regulatory thinking, and market mentality.
Taiwan has great potential, but needs to abandon conservative thinking.
Yang first mentioned that Taiwan has long been a "financial product importing country" that accumulates assets by purchasing a large amount of overseas financial products, but rarely exports its own products internationally.
By putting assets on the blockchain, it can directly connect to global liquidity. In this regard, Taiwan has the opportunity and potential to become a product maker. However, the challenge lies in the fact that Taiwan's regulatory authorities and financial institutions are accustomed to a mindset of "protecting investors" and "preventing fraud," lacking the willingness to take proactive action. If there is no adjustment in thinking, it will be difficult to enter the international market.
( Taiwan launches RWA tokenization trial platform! The Financial Supervisory Commission partners with the financial industry to open a new chapter in asset blockchain.
Without incentives, traditional users will not pay.
Liu pointed out that on-chain users prefer "high risk, high return" and are not very interested in traditional bonds or funds with a 4-5% return rate. Therefore, to allow traditional assets to be accepted on-chain, it is not enough to simply tokenize the assets; additional incentives and applications must also be designed.
The widespread adoption of RWA is just a matter of time, but short-term challenges remain.
Zhang reminds that the term RWA itself is not precise enough. Bitcoin )BTC( also possesses "real value" and can be considered RWA. The core issue is not "whether it comes from the physical world," but whether the asset has real value.
Zhang pointed out that the current Blockchain is like the "next generation internet" of its time. In the next 3 to 5 years, almost all "valuable" assets will be on-chain. However, finding the "initial application scenarios" in the short term remains key, just like how Amazon started with selling books.
"Closed chains" are a dead end; Taiwan should directly target public chains.
Regarding the idea favored by some in Taiwan's financial sector of "consortium blockchains" or "private blockchains," Yang stated that this is a serious misconception:
No capital flow: If there are no stablecoins or overseas funds, assets cannot be sold on the blockchain.
Lack of market buyers: Alliance chains cannot attract users, and overseas investors find it difficult to trust a closed system controlled by a few nodes.
Lack of investment incentives: If the token cannot extend to more applications, such as payments, lending, and portfolio investments, investors will not choose tokenized products, but will instead directly buy traditional funds.
In other words, only by embracing the public blockchain can Taiwan's RWA projects succeed.
Taiwan can learn from Singapore's regulatory sandbox, experimenting first and then optimizing.
Zhang shared that financial innovation and regulation inevitably constrain each other, and the speed of regulation is always lagging behind innovation. However, Singapore allows operators to conduct small-scale experiments through a "regulatory sandbox" before the law is clearly defined, preventing innovation from being prematurely stifled. This is worth learning from for Taiwan.
Liu added that even if assets are tokenized, it does not automatically mean they will gain liquidity. In the past, China invested a large amount of funds to develop consortium blockchains, but the results have been limited, mainly due to the lack of on-chain "composability." The real advantage should be to allow tokens to enter the financial ecosystem, becoming one of the components for lending, payment, and investment.
Taiwanese stock funds have opportunities, but must embrace DeFi liquidity.
When it comes to specific applications, Yang believes that Taiwan's stock funds are highly competitive, ranking among the best in the world. However, due to restrictions on issuance and trading mechanisms, it is difficult to penetrate overseas markets. If tokenization can be combined with on-chain liquidity, there will be an opportunity to attract international investors.
Yang reminds that "a cow led to Beijing is still a cow"; tokenization does not automatically ensure product success, the core lies in whether it can create incentives and liquidity.
He cited Fidelity )Fidelity(, which launched the first tokenized money market fund as early as 2021, but the one that truly became popular was BlackRock )BlackRock('s BUIDL, because it is closely integrated with the DeFi ecosystem, allowing tokens to not just be simple funds, but also serve as collateral for opening positions on exchanges. Investors can earn interest while also managing other investments with a single set of funds, and this powerful capability has attracted many investors to enter the market.
Yang emphasized that if Taiwan wants to develop RWA, it must "embrace on-chain liquidity" and closely integrate with the DeFi ecosystem; otherwise, it will be unable to attract overseas investors, and even local investors will not be willing to buy in.
RWA can completely transform the availability of traditional financial assets.
Zhang added that some aspects of asset tokenization are "unchangeable," such as the 4% yield on U.S. Treasury bonds, which remains 4% even after being on the blockchain. However, what can change is "accessibility, combinability, and cross-platform liquidity."
In the traditional financial system, the market is clearly segmented; for example, Nasdaq ) can only trade stocks, without the ability to directly buy or sell government bonds or gold, nor can assets be transferred to other exchanges. However, on-chain, assets can be pledged, transferred, and used across platforms 24/7. For instance, after gold is tokenized, investors do not need to sell their gold but can still pledge it to borrow funds to buy the dip in Bitcoin (BTC). This level of efficiency and flexibility is almost impossible to achieve in the real world.
Zhang believes that these changes are the real revolutionary breakthroughs, and we are still just at the beginning. In the future, as technology, imagination, and policy gradually unlock, the impact may far exceed what we can imagine now.
The stablecoin for the New Taiwan Dollar is imperative; otherwise, it will be difficult to popularize at the retail end.
Immediately after, Yang emphasized that Taiwanese financial institutions will ultimately be forced to embrace stablecoins, as local businesses have "no choice" if international trade partners require their use. He predicts that a TWD stablecoin is inevitable; otherwise, it will be difficult to support on-chain pricing. Relying solely on USD stablecoins in the long term would make retail usage overly complicated, hindering widespread adoption.
Taiwan's regulation needs to be flexible to avoid blindly following trends.
At the end of the forum, the host asked, "Can Taiwan become the key global center for RWA?" Both Zhang and Liu stated that "regulation" must be flexible, and the market needs to maintain a forward-looking and open-minded attitude.
Yang then added that it is important to understand the reasons behind successful overseas cases rather than blindly copying failed models. Some financial holding companies directly replicated the tokenization practices of Hong Kong investment banks, but the other party has not been able to achieve scale even in Hong Kong. If Taiwan merely follows suit, it is meaningless.
( Financial Supervisory Commission's Peng Jinlong: University-level AI models will be used in the financial industry next year, and the RWA plan has been initiated )
This article Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference｜Taiwan RWA If you want to break into the international market, embracing public chains and providing sufficient incentives are key. First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
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Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference | Taiwan RWA needs to break into the international market by embracing public chains and providing sufficient incentives as the key.
At the 10th Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference on September 2, co-chair of the Digital Asset Association Danny Chong, Executive Advisor Ethan Yang from Bay Valley Technology (BSOS), Jane Liu, Head of Institutional Growth at Ethena Labs, and Henry Zhang, Founder and CEO of RWA Digital Asset Exchange DigiFT, gathered to focus on the new opportunities for "real-world assets on the blockchain". The forum not only discussed whether Taiwan could transform from a "financial product importing country" to a "financial product exporter", but also delved into the discrepancies between industry positioning, regulatory thinking, and market mentality.
Taiwan has great potential, but needs to abandon conservative thinking.
Yang first mentioned that Taiwan has long been a "financial product importing country" that accumulates assets by purchasing a large amount of overseas financial products, but rarely exports its own products internationally.
By putting assets on the blockchain, it can directly connect to global liquidity. In this regard, Taiwan has the opportunity and potential to become a product maker. However, the challenge lies in the fact that Taiwan's regulatory authorities and financial institutions are accustomed to a mindset of "protecting investors" and "preventing fraud," lacking the willingness to take proactive action. If there is no adjustment in thinking, it will be difficult to enter the international market.
( Taiwan launches RWA tokenization trial platform! The Financial Supervisory Commission partners with the financial industry to open a new chapter in asset blockchain.
Without incentives, traditional users will not pay.
Liu pointed out that on-chain users prefer "high risk, high return" and are not very interested in traditional bonds or funds with a 4-5% return rate. Therefore, to allow traditional assets to be accepted on-chain, it is not enough to simply tokenize the assets; additional incentives and applications must also be designed.
The widespread adoption of RWA is just a matter of time, but short-term challenges remain.
Zhang reminds that the term RWA itself is not precise enough. Bitcoin )BTC( also possesses "real value" and can be considered RWA. The core issue is not "whether it comes from the physical world," but whether the asset has real value.
Zhang pointed out that the current Blockchain is like the "next generation internet" of its time. In the next 3 to 5 years, almost all "valuable" assets will be on-chain. However, finding the "initial application scenarios" in the short term remains key, just like how Amazon started with selling books.
"Closed chains" are a dead end; Taiwan should directly target public chains.
Regarding the idea favored by some in Taiwan's financial sector of "consortium blockchains" or "private blockchains," Yang stated that this is a serious misconception:
No capital flow: If there are no stablecoins or overseas funds, assets cannot be sold on the blockchain.
Lack of market buyers: Alliance chains cannot attract users, and overseas investors find it difficult to trust a closed system controlled by a few nodes.
Lack of investment incentives: If the token cannot extend to more applications, such as payments, lending, and portfolio investments, investors will not choose tokenized products, but will instead directly buy traditional funds.
In other words, only by embracing the public blockchain can Taiwan's RWA projects succeed.
Taiwan can learn from Singapore's regulatory sandbox, experimenting first and then optimizing.
Zhang shared that financial innovation and regulation inevitably constrain each other, and the speed of regulation is always lagging behind innovation. However, Singapore allows operators to conduct small-scale experiments through a "regulatory sandbox" before the law is clearly defined, preventing innovation from being prematurely stifled. This is worth learning from for Taiwan.
Liu added that even if assets are tokenized, it does not automatically mean they will gain liquidity. In the past, China invested a large amount of funds to develop consortium blockchains, but the results have been limited, mainly due to the lack of on-chain "composability." The real advantage should be to allow tokens to enter the financial ecosystem, becoming one of the components for lending, payment, and investment.
Taiwanese stock funds have opportunities, but must embrace DeFi liquidity.
When it comes to specific applications, Yang believes that Taiwan's stock funds are highly competitive, ranking among the best in the world. However, due to restrictions on issuance and trading mechanisms, it is difficult to penetrate overseas markets. If tokenization can be combined with on-chain liquidity, there will be an opportunity to attract international investors.
Yang reminds that "a cow led to Beijing is still a cow"; tokenization does not automatically ensure product success, the core lies in whether it can create incentives and liquidity.
He cited Fidelity )Fidelity(, which launched the first tokenized money market fund as early as 2021, but the one that truly became popular was BlackRock )BlackRock('s BUIDL, because it is closely integrated with the DeFi ecosystem, allowing tokens to not just be simple funds, but also serve as collateral for opening positions on exchanges. Investors can earn interest while also managing other investments with a single set of funds, and this powerful capability has attracted many investors to enter the market.
Yang emphasized that if Taiwan wants to develop RWA, it must "embrace on-chain liquidity" and closely integrate with the DeFi ecosystem; otherwise, it will be unable to attract overseas investors, and even local investors will not be willing to buy in.
RWA can completely transform the availability of traditional financial assets.
Zhang added that some aspects of asset tokenization are "unchangeable," such as the 4% yield on U.S. Treasury bonds, which remains 4% even after being on the blockchain. However, what can change is "accessibility, combinability, and cross-platform liquidity."
In the traditional financial system, the market is clearly segmented; for example, Nasdaq ) can only trade stocks, without the ability to directly buy or sell government bonds or gold, nor can assets be transferred to other exchanges. However, on-chain, assets can be pledged, transferred, and used across platforms 24/7. For instance, after gold is tokenized, investors do not need to sell their gold but can still pledge it to borrow funds to buy the dip in Bitcoin (BTC). This level of efficiency and flexibility is almost impossible to achieve in the real world.
Zhang believes that these changes are the real revolutionary breakthroughs, and we are still just at the beginning. In the future, as technology, imagination, and policy gradually unlock, the impact may far exceed what we can imagine now.
The stablecoin for the New Taiwan Dollar is imperative; otherwise, it will be difficult to popularize at the retail end.
Immediately after, Yang emphasized that Taiwanese financial institutions will ultimately be forced to embrace stablecoins, as local businesses have "no choice" if international trade partners require their use. He predicts that a TWD stablecoin is inevitable; otherwise, it will be difficult to support on-chain pricing. Relying solely on USD stablecoins in the long term would make retail usage overly complicated, hindering widespread adoption.
Taiwan's regulation needs to be flexible to avoid blindly following trends.
At the end of the forum, the host asked, "Can Taiwan become the key global center for RWA?" Both Zhang and Liu stated that "regulation" must be flexible, and the market needs to maintain a forward-looking and open-minded attitude.
Yang then added that it is important to understand the reasons behind successful overseas cases rather than blindly copying failed models. Some financial holding companies directly replicated the tokenization practices of Hong Kong investment banks, but the other party has not been able to achieve scale even in Hong Kong. If Taiwan merely follows suit, it is meaningless.
( Financial Supervisory Commission's Peng Jinlong: University-level AI models will be used in the financial industry next year, and the RWA plan has been initiated )
This article Blockchain Enthusiasts Annual Conference｜Taiwan RWA If you want to break into the international market, embracing public chains and providing sufficient incentives are key. First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.