Rich by Coin

It is a pleasure to join you all at the Consensus Conference in Hong Kong for the second consecutive year. Let me begin by thanking CoinDesk for once again choosing Hong Kong to host this iconic event. This conference has become a powerful platform in Asia for exploring the cutting-edge trends in the Web3 space and for fostering partnerships and collaboration. Globally, the application of Web3 technologies in finance continues to broaden in both scope and sophistication.

The first is tokenisation of RWAs. In a growing number of markets, tokenisation initiatives are moving from “proof of concept” to real-world deployment, supported by more institutional adoption. Government bonds, money market funds and other more traditional financial instruments are increasingly being issued or mirrored on-chain, using digital ledgers to enhance settlement efficiency, enable fractional ownership and unlock liquidity in assets that have traditionally been less liquid. Hong Kong is one of the pioneers in this space, having issued tokenised government green bonds, and last year we issued the world’s largest digital green bond with a multi-currency offering of HK$10 billion.

The second trend is the interaction between TradFi and DeFi, with traditional institutions importing DeFi mechanisms into their own architectures to support more efficient trading, funding and settlement. At the same time, DeFi is coming under growing regulatory and supervisory pressure in multiple jurisdictions, particularly in relation to anti-money laundering, investor protection, and broader financial stability. The third trend is the growing intersection between AI and digital assets, with AI systems designed to interact with tokenised money and smart contracts, enabling the autonomous execution of certain transactions and settlements. As AI agents become capable of making and executing decisions independently, we may begin to see the early forms of what some call the “machine economy” on chain, where AI agents can hold and transfer digital assets, pay for services and transact with one another, a shift that could deliver substantial efficiency gains but raises questions around AI governance, accountability and cybersecurity.