Author | Zhou Zhiyu
Editor | Zhang Xiaoling
The reconstruction of the physical world through technological innovation is quietly happening from the ground up. The core of this exploration of the digital &#34;Newland&#34; is to break the shackles of traditional systems using digital language and rules, redefining and managing the most real assets around us.
On August 7, Bian Zhuoqun, Vice President of ANT GROUP and President of Ant Digital Technology's blockchain business, stated that after practical verification in the new energy sector, Ant Digital Technology's RWA technology platform, business model, and ecosystem are gradually maturing. Based on this premise, Ant Digital Technology has begun to steadily implement new explorations of computing power and broader financial assets.
Bian Zhuoqun pointed out that Ant Digital Technology has collaborated with licensed institutions in Hong Kong and ecological partners to establish a &#34;one-stop tokenization issuance system.&#34;
According to Wall Street Insights, Ant Digital Technology positions itself as a portal connecting Web2 and Web3. In Bian Zhuoqun's words, it aims to provide more credible assets for Web3 and more compliant funds for Web2.
Ant Digital Technology attempts to build a portal connecting the physical world and the digital world, targeting the hardest value core in the real economy. This is not only an extension of Ant's own business but also a statement about the future direction of the entire digital asset industry. It suggests that the era relying on purely conceptual and highly speculative barbaric growth is coming to an end, and a new competition centered around &#34;real value&#34; has already begun.
<h2>Ant's Choice</h2>
Currently, the wave of RWA is surging, with institutions like Boston Consulting Group predicting that by 2030, the global tokenization market size will reach $16 trillion. Faced with such a huge temptation, there has been a prevailing sentiment in the industry that &#34;everything can be RWA.&#34;
However, Ant Digital Technology has shown unusual caution and restraint. &#34;In the past year, we have rejected many RWA demands, including agricultural products, fine wines, and high-end paintings,&#34; Bian Zhuoqun bluntly stated. In her view, choosing assets is like transplanting trees; it is not about making big strides but rather about first embedding the roots into the soil.
Behind this caution is a profound understanding of asset value. The &#34;RWA Industry Development Research Report · Industry Volume 2025&#34; (hereinafter referred to as the &#34;Report&#34;) released on August 7 also confirms this view, stating that successfully achieving scalable implementation of assets must meet three thresholds: value stability, clear legal rights, and verifiable off-chain data. The notion that &#34;everything can be RWA&#34; is a false proposition.
Ant Digital Technology's choice has fallen on three major areas: new energy, computing power, and financial assets.
The story began a year ago when Ant Digital Technology's new energy charging pile RWA project was successfully selected as one of the first representative cases in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Ensemble sandbox. Subsequently, this model was successfully replicated in the fields of photovoltaics, battery swapping, and energy storage cabinets.
Why new energy? Because these types of assets have a natural connection point between the physical world and the digital world. Through Ant's self-developed &#34;Blockchain + IoT&#34; technology solution AntChain Inside, a digital identity imprint can be assigned to each charging pile and each photovoltaic panel, mapping its physical state and operational data in real-time, achieving credible management of assets throughout their entire lifecycle
Now, this network has connected over 15 million new energy devices, forming the world's largest on-chain new energy device network. This is not only the first step in asset on-chain but also the foundation for large-scale trading of RWA.
The successful practices in the new energy field have made Ant Group's technology platform, business model, and ecosystem increasingly mature. Based on this, they are steadily extending their reach into computing power and financial assets.
Bian Zhuoqun explained that the computing power data center is highly digitized, with real-time monitoring of data such as usage and revenue distribution, making the revenue transparent and verifiable; while financial assets inherently possess digital genes and a compliance foundation, making both ideal targets for RWA.
<h2>Ten Years of Grinding the Sword</h2>
Ant Group's current vigorous efforts in the RWA field are inseparable from the past decade of persistence and investment in blockchain technology without making profits.
&#34;Who can spend ten years in the blockchain field without making money today?&#34; Bian Zhuoqun half-jokingly retorted during his speech. These ten years have brought Ant three &#34;firsts&#34;: the number of global blockchain patents ranked first for five consecutive years, the first market share in the domestic BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) market, and a confirmed chain performance of up to 200,000 transactions per second (TPS).
What does 200,000 TPS mean? While the industry is still discussing public chain performances of 10,000 or 20,000 TPS today, Ant has already elevated this number by an order of magnitude. This means that its blockchain platform has the capability to handle financial-grade massive transactions, providing a solid technical foundation for the efficient and secure circulation of assets globally.
To better serve the RWA scenarios with this underlying capability, Ant has constructed a unique architecture of &#34;two chains and one bridge.&#34; The so-called &#34;two chains&#34; refer to the &#34;asset chain&#34; and the &#34;transaction chain.&#34; The asset chain ensures the precise depiction of physical assets to digital twins at the source through technologies like AntChain Inside, addressing the issue of &#34;asset credibility.&#34; The transaction chain is responsible for allowing these digitized assets to be traded and circulated in a compliant and efficient environment. The &#34;bridge&#34; connecting the two achieves efficient docking of domestic assets with global funds.
On top of this, Ant further launched the Layer2 network Jovay, specifically designed for institutional-level scenarios. It not only significantly enhances transaction throughput but also reduces user response time to within one second, while ensuring asset privacy and compliance security end-to-end through the introduction of cutting-edge technologies such as AI large models and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK).
Wall Street Insights has also learned that Ant's self-developed public chain is scheduled to officially launch by the end of September 2025, which will be able to handle real transactions. On April 30 of this year, Ant released the Layer2 blockchain Jovay and clearly stated that Jovay is a compliant institutional-level blockchain and will not issue tokens.
<h2>Building a New Ecosystem</h2>
If technology is the starting point, then &#34;compliant issuance&#34; is the key to unlocking global circulation. In this grand strategy, Hong Kong is the most critical move for Ant.
Hong Kong is embracing digital assets with unprecedented determination and strength. Ant's overseas headquarters officially settled in Hong Kong this April and signed a contract to become a &#34;key enterprise partner&#34; of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government
&#34;Steady progress leads to long-term success, which must be within a compliant framework.&#34; Bian Zhuoqun repeatedly emphasized the word &#34;compliance&#34; in his speech. Over the past year, Ant Group's digital technology has connected the entire chain of securities trading (License No. 1), investment consulting (License No. 4), asset management (License No. 9), stablecoins, and digital asset custody through deep collaboration with licensed institutions in Hong Kong, forming a &#34;one-stop token issuance system.&#34; This means that enterprises can complete asset issuance and global circulation here in a compliant, efficient, and low-cost manner.
The construction of the ecosystem goes beyond the financial level. Ant Group's digital technology is collaborating with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and over 20 enterprises to jointly formulate technical specifications for on-chain physical assets, which is regarded as the RWA &#34;5G-like standard&#34; and will be released soon. In addition, the establishment of the &#34;AI + Web3 Laboratory&#34; in collaboration with Hong Kong Polytechnic University is aimed at reserving talent and innovative power for the future of the industry.
From open-source technology and open ecosystems to tool sharing and industry-academia-research cooperation, Ant Group's digital technology is fully embracing the scene demands in Hong Kong. Bian Zhuoqun hopes that this &#34;logo wall&#34; filled with partners will continue to grow longer, as only with everyone's participation can this endeavor truly succeed.
In the future, whether Ant Group's digital technology can succeed will not be judged by the height of technical parameters, but by whether it truly helps Chinese enterprises make the leap from &#34;manufacturing&#34; to &#34;trading.&#34; If successful, its significance will far exceed the commercial landscape of a single company, providing a new technical model for the globalization narrative of China's real economy. This expedition, which starts from technology and aims to reconstruct the industrial value paradigm, has only just begun

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Ant Group sails towards the digital "Newland"