香港持续加快现实世界资产代币化步伐

背景
在代币化的情境中，“现实世界资产”是指以数字形式在区块链上表示的物理资产或传统金融资产。该些资产可包括证券、债券、金融工具、基金，以及非金融资产，如房地产、知识产权、自然资源、艺术品，甚至收入流。尽管香港正持续推动证券及其他投资产品的代币化基础设施建设，这类金融产品只是“现实世界资产”的其中一个子集，而后者实际上囊括了更多元化的可代币化资产类别。
01 金融资产代币化指引
香港证券及期货事务监察委员会 (证监会) 就代币化证券相关活动及证监会认可投资产品发布了监管指引。指引虽聚焦代币化金融产品的发行 (包括绿色债券、商业票据、权证、飞机租赁基金以及认可零售投资产品)，但也对其他现实世界资产的代币化提供了思路。
中介人在代币化过程中扮演关键角色，中介人包括产品提供商、产品发行经理、代币化基金管理人及代币化资产分销商等。证监会指引提醒该等中介人采取措施，以应对代币化相关风险，比如：
产品提供商应持续并始终对代币化安排的整体运作负责，即使将其中的部分职能 (如代币技术生成、账本/记录维护、智能合约审计) 外包给其他服务提供商；
对发行人、拟代币化的产品、代币化的技术范畴、代币化安排的特性及风险，以及第三方服务提供商等作尽职调查；
确保代币持有人的所有权权益记录妥善保存，不得以不记名形式发行代币化产品；
采取适当措施管理和降低网络安全、数据隐私、系统故障恢复等风险，并制定完备的业务连续性预案；
建立与代币化产品特性及风险相匹配的保管安排；
不得在未实施额外有效控制措施的情况下使用公有非许可制区块链网络；
完整披露代币化安排细节 (包括链外及/或链上结算是否已作实)、代币转让限制、是否已进行智能合约审计、代币的法律所有权和受益所有权、底层产品的所有权/权益、网络安全风险、潜在技术缺陷或系统故障可能，以及现行法律适用的潜在挑战；及事先与证监会沟通代币化业务方案。
证监会指出，代币化金融产品本质上是以代币化为包装的传统金融产品。因此，传统证券市场的现行监管法规同样适用于代币化产品。
尽管证监会并未强制规定代币化产品仅限专业投资者认购或转让，但向香港公众发售此类产品时，现行的公开发行制度仍然适用。如果产品发售未经证监会批准或未配备合规的招股章程，该产品仅能面向专业投资者发售或依据招股章程的适用豁免条款进行。
02 银行同业结算沙盒
香港金管局 (金管局) 于2024年8月启动Ensemble项目沙盒 (沙盒)，旨在探索创新型金融市场基础设施，通过批发层面央行数码货币 (wCBDC) 促进市场以代币化货币进行无缝的银行同业结算。首阶段试验推出四大代币化资产用例主题，包括固定收益和投资基金、流动性管理、绿色和可持续金融，以及贸易和供应链融资。通过沙盒试验，金管局将验证代币化资产、代币化存款和wCBDC之间的技术互通性，亦会让业界参与者在实际业务情景中测试代币化资产交易。
此举标志着香港向现实世界资产代币化迈出重要一步——当银行同业资金和银行存款实现代币化，此类代币化资金和存款可直接用于代币化资产交易，全面释放代币化潜力。尤其是，此类交易可即时执行且不可撤销，付款和资产转移同步发生，没有结算风险。
03 未来展望
香港政府积极拥抱金融科技的发展，竭力营造一个技术中立的监管环境，在鼓励创新的同时坚持守护市场诚信。证监会的指引强调了产品提供商对代币化安排的管理和运营健全性负有最终责任，同时也提醒所有中介人和参与方认识并管控代币化相关风险 (包括新风险)，比如所有权、结算最终性、技术系统、资产保管及法律/法规合规等方面。
另一方面，香港正在积极构建传统金融生态与区块链新生态的互通架构。金管局通过沙盒加快积累更多用例和经验，将最终推动建立香港市场代币化资产支付与转让的统一标准。
Hong Kong’s initiatives to accelerate tokenisation of real-world assets
Background
In the context of tokenisation, a “real-world asset” refers to a physical asset or a traditional financial asset that is represented digitally on a blockchain. These assets may include equities, bonds, financial instruments, and funds, as well as non-financial assets such as real estate, intellectual property, natural resources, art pieces or even income streams. While Hong Kong is continuously taking initiates to build infrastructure for tokenisation of securities and other investment products, such targets are, in fact, a common subset of the term “real-world assets”, which includes diverse categories of other assets that can be tokenised.
01 Guidance on tokenisation of financial assets
The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) has provided regulatory guidance on tokenised securities-related activities as well as SFC-authorised investment products. Although the guidance focuses on issuance of tokenised financial products (including green bonds, commercial papers, warrants, aircraft leasing funds, as well as authorised retail products), it also gives insights into the tokenisation of other real-world assets.
Intermediaries play a crucial role in the tokenisation, and they include product providers, managers of product issuance, fund managers of tokenised funds, and distributors of tokenised assets, etc. The SFC guidance reminds such intermediaries to adopt safeguards in managing risks associated with tokenisation, such as:
1.Product providers should remain, and ultimately be, responsible for the overall operation of the tokenisation arrangement, regardless of any outsourcing of certain functions (e.g. the technical creation of the tokens, ledger/record maintenance, smart contract audit) to other service providers;
2.Conduct due diligence on, amongst other things, the issuers, the products to be tokenised, the technology aspects of tokenisation, the features and risks arising from the tokenisation arrangement, and third-party service providers;
3.Ensure proper records of token holders’ ownership interests are maintained, and that the tokenised products are not issued in bearer form;
4.Have appropriate measures in place to manage and mitigate cybersecurity risks, data privacy, system outages and recovery, and to maintain a comprehensive and robust business continuity plan;
5.Put in place appropriate custodial arrangements which address the features and risks of the tokenised products;
6.Not to use public-permissionless blockchain networks without additional and proper controls;
7.Make adequate disclosure regarding the tokenisation arrangement (including whether off-chain and/or on-chain settlement is final), limitations imposed on token transfers, whether a smart contract audit has been conducted, the legal and beneficial title of the tokens, ownership of / interests in the underlying product, cybersecurity risks, the possibility of undiscovered technical flaws or system outage, and potential challenges in application of existing laws; and
8.Discuss the tokenisation business plan with the SFC in advance.
The SFC points out that tokenised financial products are fundamentally traditional financial products with a tokenisation wrapper. Accordingly, the existing legal and regulatory requirements governing the traditional securities markets apply equally to tokenised products.
Although the SFC does not mandatorily limit the tokenised products to being offered or transferred to professional investors only, the existing public offering regime continues to apply when offering tokenised financial assets to the public in Hong Kong. If an offer is not authorised by the SFC or does not come with a compliant prospectus, it can only be made to professional investors or be made pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirement.
02 Sandbox for interbank tokenised settlement
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the Project Ensemble Sandbox (Sandbox) in August 2024 to explore innovative financial market infrastructure that will allow seamless interbank settlement of tokenised money through wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC). Four main themes of asset tokenisation use cases for the initial round of experimentation were introduced, including fixed income and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, and trade and supply chain finance. The Sandbox not only enables the HKMA to examine technical interoperability among tokenised assets, tokenised deposits and wCBDC, but it also allows industry participants to conduct testing of tokenised asset transactions in practical use case scenarios.
This is a significant stride towards the tokenisation of real-world assets, because if money and bank deposits can be tokenised amongst banks, such tokenised money and deposits can be used for tokenised asset transactions, unleashing the full potential of tokenisation. In particular, such transactions can be executed instantaneously and irrevocably, with both payment and asset transfer occurring simultaneously without settlement risk.
03 Way ahead
The Hong Kong Government holds a positive attitude towards embracing financial technology moving forward, and strives to provide a technology-neutral regulatory environment that encourages innovation without compromising market integrity. While the SFC is providing guidance to stress the important roles of product providers in being ultimately responsible for management and operational soundness of the tokenisation arrangement, all intermediaries and parties involved in the process are reminded to understand and manage the risks (including new risks) associated with the tokenisation in areas such as ownership, settlement finality, technology, custody and legal / regulatory compliance.
On the other hand, Hong Kong is keen to build an architecture that can achieve interoperability between traditional financial ecosystem and the new ecosystem on blockchain. The HKMA’s endeavour in using the Sandbox, accelerated by the experience accumulated from the use cases in the Sandbox, will drive a common standard for the payment and transfer of tokenised assets in the Hong Kong market.