A Decade of Innovation Meets Strategic Vision

Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025 wasn't just another industry gathering—it was a strategic inflection point. Celebrating its 10th anniversary alongside the StartmeupHK Festival, the event drew over 45,000 visitors from 120+ economies, far exceeding initial projections and signaling renewed global confidence in Hong Kong's innovation trajectory.

A Week of Intensity: From Main Stage to Closed-Door Strategy Sessions

This year's Hong Kong Fintech Week showcased how the asset tokenization landscape has truly matured. As Florian noted, "Ten years in, the event has never been more substantive and the pace was visible in the back-to-back activity that filled the week."

Asset tokenization and RWAs shaped the agenda throughout. The week included not just public panel discussions like the "RWAs Revolution" session, but also closed-door sessions with the HKMA and intensive corridor discussions across the city. For EVIDENT, it represented "a packed week and high-intensity schedule, as it should be," reflecting the genuine momentum in institutional adoption.

"The most important part was the depth of the conversations and the sense that the industry is aligning on substance," Florian observed, highlighting how the event has evolved from conceptual discussions to operational strategy sessions.

HKMA's DART Strategy: Building the Foundation for Tomorrow

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's unveiling of "Fintech 2030" structured around the DART framework (Data, AI, Resilience, Tokenization)—represents perhaps the most comprehensive fintech roadmap we've seen from any major financial center. Chief Executive Eddie Yue outlined how over 40 specific initiatives will transform Hong Kong into a "robust, resilient, and future-ready fintech hub."

What caught our attention:

• Shared AI Infrastructure: The AI² strategy democratizes access to advanced AI capabilities, developing shared, scalable infrastructure and finance-specific models in collaboration with industry stakeholders
• Post-Quantum Cryptography Readiness: Forward-thinking security infrastructure that addresses threats years before they materialize
• Wholesale CBDC Priority: The strategic pivot of e-HKD toward institutional settlement through Project Ensemble, directly supporting the tokenization ecosystem we're building at EVIDENT
• Tokenization Leadership: The HKMA will lead by example, regularizing the issuance of tokenized government bonds and exploring tokenized Exchange Fund papers

This isn't regulatory catch-up, it's proactive market creation.

The RWA Revolution Panel: From Concept to Execution

Our CEO Florian M Spiegl participated in one of the week's most significant discussions: "RWAs Revolution: Reshaping Global Markets," alongside Andrew Scott (Head of Digital Assets, Marketnode), Katie He (Head of Product and Strategy, China Asset Management Hong Kong), and Philippe Laurensy (CEO Asia Pacific, Euroclear Group). The panel, moderated by Laura Loh (Director, Portfolio Strategy & Risk Group Office and Director, Investment Blockchain, Temasek), provided a comprehensive deep dive into the current state and future of tokenized real-world assets.

The Tipping Point Has Arrived When asked about the development that convinced him RWA tokenization had reached its tipping point, Florian emphasized that the real shift isn't found in headlines—it's in execution. He pointed to how EVIDENT now operates live issuance, regulated custody, and actual secondary transactions as the first SFC-licensed digital market infrastructure platform. What convinced him of this tipping point is institutional acceptance, with large asset managers now acting rather than experimenting, needing digital market infrastructure to scale distribution and reach private wealth.

Infrastructure and Custody Reality Florian's insights on institutional requirements drew directly from EVIDENT's experience building regulated infrastructure. He emphasized that custody for RWAs isn't about digital wallets—it's about legal control, segregation, and enforceability, with institutions expecting fiduciary protection, auditability, and full integration with fund administration. He identified two critical gaps: most providers only safeguard keys rather than providing the register control and compliance that regulated markets need, and the lack of interoperability between traditional systems and digital infrastructure that keeps tokenization fragmented.

Distribution as the Next Frontier When addressing barriers to adoption, Florian identified distribution and liquidity as the real challenge beyond regulation and technology. His analysis pointed out that regulatory clarity exists in Hong Kong, while technology bottlenecks have been solved—the real challenge is scaling distribution through standardized rails connecting issuers, intermediaries, and investors. He emphasized Hong Kong's competitive advantages: regulatory clarity, institutional readiness, regulator-industry alignment, and concentrated deal flow, while warning that market fragmentation through proprietary systems poses the most underestimated risk to the industry's growth.

Florian's Key Observations: A CEO's Perspective on Market Maturity

Beyond the panel discussion, Florian's week-long experience at Hong Kong Fintech Week provided deeper insights into how the asset tokenization landscape has fundamentally shifted. His observations from the event reveal an industry that has moved decisively from experimentation to execution:

1. Institutional Adoption is No Longer a Question

"This year made that clear. Large players are not experimenting; they are executing. 2025 will likely be the year we look back on as the moment the market stopped debating tokenization and started scaling it."

The conversations Florian witnessed throughout the week whether on stage at the main event, in closed-door sessions with the HKMA, or in corridor discussions across town demonstrated a level of clarity from institutional players that marked a fundamental shift in market dynamics.

2. Tokenization is Both Revolutionary and Simple in Essence

"At its core, it is a shift in record-keeping: a shared global database that removes reconciliation, reduces friction, connects participants across the value chain. Everything else remains the same: trust, asset quality, professionalism, discretion. Technology amplifies fundamentals; it does not replace them."

This insight cuts through much of the industry hype to focus on tokenization's practical value proposition not as a replacement for traditional finance principles, but as infrastructure that makes those principles more efficient and accessible.

3. Institutions Are Focused on the WHY, Not the HOW

"High-quality deals. Certainty. Immediacy. Downstream liquidity. A fully licensed setup across issuance, distribution, secondaries, and custody is now a hygiene factor: necessary, but not sufficient. What matters is delivering real assets with real demand through licensed infrastructure that performs reliably."

This observation aligns with EVIDENT's approach: building comprehensive infrastructure that addresses the entire investment lifecycle, not just the technical blockchain layer.

4. Too Many Projects Still Miss the Mark

"There are still PR-driven experiments and 'tokens' with no path to institutional distribution at any meaningful scale. Real adoption requires product quality, regulatory depth, and operational discipline. This is where superficial narratives fall apart."

Florian's assessment highlights the continuing divide between serious institutional infrastructure and speculative tokenization projects—a distinction that becomes more important as real capital enters the space.

5. Hong Kong's Regulatory Clarity is Starting to Pay Off

"HK committed early to strict rules and continuous clarification for the digital asset space. That consistency is now giving institutions the confidence to commit capital and build long-term strategies here."

This validation of Hong Kong's regulatory approach, with specific recognition for the SFC and HKMA's work, reinforces the strategic importance of the policy announcements made during the week.

6. Next Year: Distribution and Liquidity Will Dominate the Conversation

"This year was about onboarding assets. Next year will be about moving them; through channels where private wealth investors already are, with the liquidity expectations they already have."

This forward-looking insight captures the industry's next phase: transitioning from successful asset tokenization to building the distribution infrastructure that enables scale and liquidity.

EVIDENT's Perspective: Building Infrastructure for the Next Phase

Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025 validated many of the principles underlying EVIDENT's approach to digital asset infrastructure. Florian's observation that "technology amplifies fundamentals; it does not replace them" captures our philosophy: building comprehensive, regulated infrastructure that enhances traditional finance rather than attempting to replace it.

The week reinforced that successful tokenization requires more than just blockchain technology, it demands "product quality, regulatory depth, and operational discipline." As the first SFC-licensed digital market infrastructure platform, EVIDENT has focused on exactly these fundamentals: delivering real assets with real demand through licensed infrastructure that performs reliably.

Looking ahead, Florian's prediction that "next year will be about moving [assets]; through channels where private wealth investors already are, with the liquidity expectations they already have" aligns with our strategic focus on distribution and secondary market development. The institutional adoption curve has reached an inflection point, and the industry is now shifting from successful asset onboarding to building the distribution infrastructure that enables scale.

The convergence of Hong Kong's regulatory clarity, technological maturity, and institutional readiness creates an unprecedented opportunity. As the city embarks on its next decade of fintech leadership under the DART framework, EVIDENT remains committed to building the infrastructure that will define how private wealth investors access alternative assets in the digital age.

The future that regulators are enabling and that we demonstrated during Hong Kong Fintech Week isn't theoretical, it's operational, regulated, and scaling. That's the foundation upon which Asia's digital finance transformation will be built.