Today, I was inundated by the (Guidelines for the Issuance of RWA for Domestic Assets Overseas) released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. To many, it might just seem like another routine compliance blockade. However, if you piece together the policy puzzle from the past few years, you'll find that this is actually a 'secret door' opened by China—a gate to the global Web3 finance, yet tightly locking the risks outside.
1. Since domestic regulations prohibit touching 'currency', why promote RWA?
China's stance on virtual currencies has remained unchanged: it is strictly prohibited domestically. However, the brilliance of this guideline lies in its establishment of a framework that is 'tight internally and loose externally'.
In the past, we were concerned about the influx of 'air coins' from abroad harvesting domestic wealth; now the regulators have changed their thinking: since the global Web3 world has accumulated trillions of dollars in liquidity, rather than letting it idle in virtual space, it is better to break down tangible assets in China—those visible and tangible green power plants, highways, and industrial parks—into 'digital tokens (RWA)' and send them out.
This is essentially a 'digital expedition' of assets. We do not allow the public to buy coins, but we encourage overseas 'foreign money' to buy our asset rights.
2. A seemingly conservative yet actually radical strategic chess game.
On the surface, the filing system seems very strict, with many rules, but this is precisely the regulatory body's 'long-term vision'.
Bypassing the old order with 'new infrastructure': Traditional cross-border financing relies too much on SWIFT and international banks, facing the risk of 'supply interruption' at any time. RWA provides us with a blockchain-based financing channel that is harder to block.
The 'overseas self-rescue' of existing assets: Many infrastructure assets in China have poor liquidity and heavy local debt pressure. By using RWA, pushing these heavy assets to the global market to exchange for real money is a high-dimensional 'deleveraging'.
Competing for digital pricing power: Since the US has begun to tokenize US treasury bonds (like BlackRock's actions), if China does not enter the arena, the future digital financial world will only have the voice of the dollar. This guidance is China's 'red flag of rules' in the field of digital assets.
3. The ultimate foreshadowing: The ambition of 'public chainization' of the digital RMB?
You might ask, why are people still using US dollar stablecoins to buy RWA, and what does that have to do with digital RMB (e-CNY)?
In fact, RWA is the 'goods', and digital RMB is the 'vehicle'. Currently, filing, auditing assets, and managing private keys are all about cleaning up the 'goods'. Once the infrastructure like cross-border digital currency bridges (mBridge) matures, digital RMB is likely to evolve into an 'official underlying public chain'.
Imagine this: One day, an investor from South America, holding digital RMB, directly purchases RWA from a photovoltaic power station in China on an open underlying protocol. The entire process does not require going through layers of banks, with instant settlement and complete Chinese regulation. At this point, digital RMB is no longer just money; it becomes the legal tender of the Web3 world.
4. The future pattern: A digital financial empire that is 'square inside and round outside'.
We are heading towards a Web3 era with Chinese characteristics:
Internal (Square): The rules remain as solid as a mountain. Speculation within the country is strictly prohibited to protect the people's wallets and prevent systemic financial risks.
Outward (Round): Smooth and open. Using Hong Kong as a 'springboard', leveraging blockchain technology to deliver Chinese assets and Chinese credit to every crypto wallet around the world.
But don't think that this move by Dongda is to loosen virtual currency; it is to leverage the technical underpinnings of virtual assets to sustain the Chinese real economy. This is a watershed moment from 'defending against the impact of virtual currencies' to 'actively using digital tools'.
This 'window' has been opened, and although the strongest anti-theft net has been added, the light from outside has indeed shone in. China will form a unique financial ecological niche:
Dual Isolation: Utilizing Hong Kong as a 'stress testing ground' to establish a dual firewall of technology and law. Asset ownership is onshore, transactions are on-chain, and dividends go through compliant channels.
Technological sovereignty: Abandoning completely decentralized public chains in favor of compliant chains with 'penetrating supervision' capabilities. This means that even if assets are traded at the ends of the earth, Chinese regulators still have the ability to 'freeze with one click' and 'penetrate identification'.
Transcending generations: While the West is still entangled in the legality of virtual currencies, China has already begun to try to highly couple physical assets, sovereign digital currencies, and blockchain protocols, constructing a digital financial sovereignty system independent of SWIFT.
What do you think of my analysis? If you think it's good, please give it a thumbs up.