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author | liu yu

editor | liu jingfeng

in recent years, as the economy has entered a downward channel, global investment and financing have also begun to tighten.

taking southeast asia, a hot spot for overseas expansion, as an example, the number and amount of financing transactions in southeast asia fell to a six-year low in 2023, and 88% of investors felt that they were facing a more difficult exit environment.

under such circumstances, more and more chinese manufacturing companies going overseas are beginning to face a headache - how to solve the funding problem overseas?

in the past two years, the overseas expansion of chinese new energy vehicles has become a topic of national concern. however, few people know that many chinese automakers have started overseas expansion before, but unfortunately went bankrupt due to funding difficulties overseas. finoba, a german subsidiary of sinomach automotive, is a regrettable example.

in june 2016, china national automotive industry engineering corporation, a subsidiary of sinomach automotive, established a wholly-owned subsidiary, finoba bavaria ("finoba company"), in germany, starting its overseas development journey.

finoba's main business is to design and manufacture production lines for european automobile oems, and to carry out marketing and execution of general contracting projects. it once undertook and bid for engineering projects of daimler, volkswagen, opel, tesla and other automakers. bidding means that a large amount of project reserve funds are needed. however, under the global epidemic, major european automobile factories have completely stopped production, and the business of supporting parts manufacturers has also begun to stagnate, causing finoba's liquidity to face huge pressure. however, due to the serious shortage of financial services provided by chinese financial institutions for overseas financing of overseas enterprises, and the lack of understanding of the actual business situation of overseas entities of overseas enterprises and the financial strength of domestic entities by overseas banks, they will be hesitant in granting credit. this makes it very difficult for finoba to raise funds.

in september 2020, the overwhelmed finoba company finally entered bankruptcy proceedings. to this day, the bankruptcy matter is still being processed.

in fact, finoba is not an isolated case. this is a common problem faced by all overseas companies - when global financing becomes difficult, how can chinese companies in a "foreign land" solve their financial difficulties?

in the past, only a small number of enterprises going overseas could complete overseas financing through local bank loans, vc support, etc. today, another way has opened up ideas for corporate financing - rwa, real world assets.

on august 23, a-share listed company langxin technology cooperated with ant digits to complete the country's first rwa based on new energy physical assets in hong kong, with an amount of approximately rmb 100 million.

this complex statement can be explained by another sentence: langxin technology raised 100 million yuan through the rwa issued by ant digits.

although the incident was small, it was of great significance. this means that even across regions and borders, traditional enterprises can still achieve remote credit and financing through digital assets corresponding to physical assets, and "prove their value."

many traditional companies face a fatal problem - excessive asset investment causes the company to often suffer from cash flow pressure.

take the current hottest new energy industry as an example. operating charging piles for new energy vehicles is definitely a job that requires heavy investment.

langxin technology is a large-scale energy internet company in china. its subsidiary xindiantu covers more than 90% of the domestic operating public charging service network, aggregating more than 100,000 charging stations and more than 1.3 million charging devices, radiating to more than 400 cities across the country.

however, behind the huge charging network is the huge capital investment of the operators on the platform.

what is shown on the langxin technology new electric road platform is just a microcosm of the industry. data shows that currently, 85% of public charging services in china are provided by private enterprises, more than 82% of operators have less than 10 charging stations, and more than 50% of operators have an overall investment of less than 1 million.

these operators focus more on localized operation services, and are more likely to obtain local resources and establish stable service cooperation relationships with surrounding resources. however, compared with the leading operators, their financing methods and channels still face challenges, and they still have a large number of financing needs for which they have not found suitable solutions.

in fact, their embarrassment lies in the fact that although they have relatively heavy asset investments, these assets cannot enable them to successfully obtain loans from banks, and it is difficult for them to be favored by vcs.

a new financing method is changing this situation.

recently, ant digits and longsin technology cooperated to complete the first domestic rwa (physical asset tokenization) financing based on new energy physical assets in hong kong, completing financing of approximately rmb 100 million.

its principle is not complicated. new electric, a subsidiary of longxin, uses some charging piles on the platform as rwa anchor assets. through the integration of blockchain technology and iot technology of ant chain, a subsidiary of ant digital technology, each digital asset represents part of the income rights of the corresponding charging pile. this product is jointly issued by ant digital technology and ubs (hong kong), which means that ant chain has taken another substantial step in promoting the development of the web3 industry.

industry insiders believe that the innovative financing method of new energy rwa trusted chain provides a unique financing channel with broad development prospects for new energy asset investors, builders and operators, and also provides a new investment channel for global investors to invest in chinese new energy assets. if the first order is replicated on a large scale, langxin new electric will use the rwa model to help many small and medium-sized energy storage, charging pile operators and other partners to revitalize existing high-quality assets, improve the liquidity of heavy assets, form a virtuous cycle of investment and financing, and truly realize technology empowerment of physical assets.

what is the mysterious rwa?

the so-called rwa, or the tokenization of real-world assets, refers to a form of transaction in which ownership is stored in digital form (token) on the blockchain, similar to the "ipo" in the digital world.

simply put, it uses technical means to digitize physical assets, map them one by one to the blockchain for storage, and then trade them. the main technology it uses is blockchain, and it also uses a variety of technologies such as the internet of things, privacy computing, and artificial intelligence.

ant chain supports the "on-chain" of physical assets, and ensures the security, transparency and immutability of assets through blockchain technology. this innovative approach has greatly improved the efficiency of asset management and risk control capabilities, while creating a clear and credible green investment environment for investors. specifically, blockchain + iot + artificial intelligence technology can provide transparent and traceable data records, thereby enhancing the trust of financial institutions in enterprises and reducing financing risks.

compared with the difficulty of confirming ownership and trading physical assets, rwa can bring more liquidity to real assets and reduce the cost of asset financing by leveraging the interoperability of the global blockchain network.

ant financial began exploring blockchain technology as early as 2015 and is one of the first companies in china to invest in the long-term research and development of this technology and promote industrial integration.

in june 2021, ant chain officially launched the blockchain module (maas), taking an important step towards enabling the trusted digitalization of the industry. the maas module is a "connector" from the physical world to the digital world, which can achieve "power on and connect to the blockchain". through the trusted root based on the unique characteristics of the device, electronic devices can automatically connect to the blockchain, realize the trusted connection of iot data to the chain, and perform full-process encryption.

in september 2023, ant chain's web3 brand zan was launched at the bund conference. zan is aimed at hong kong and overseas markets, providing node services, digital identity verification (ekyc), transaction risk control (kyt) and other web3-oriented technical solutions, especially security and compliance technology products.

prior to this, ant chain's trusted chain technology has been widely used in new energy vehicles, batteries, photovoltaic panels, and other new energy fields, and the cumulative number of chain devices has exceeded 12 million.

in addition to langxin technology, another example of ant chain application is dudu battery swap. this is a second-wheel battery swap company that mainly provides "battery swap" services to community residents. the battery swap stations are set up in residential areas or electric vehicle parking spots on the street. at present, dudu battery swap has laid out more than 5,000 battery swap cabinets in shenzhen and hangzhou, with a total of more than 130,000 registered users.

however, the core of developing the battery swap business is to buy batteries and then rent them out.. if the unit price of a battery is 1,000 yuan, 200,000 users will have to prepare 200 million yuan in battery assets. for startups, this kind of financial pressure will seriously restrict the company's business development. after dudu battery exchange cooperated with ant chain, it used "chain batteries" in financing scenarios. they let the battery's bms (battery management system) management system-the power, voltage, charge and discharge times, battery health and other data of each battery cell are recorded on the blockchain in detail, and the data source is credible and cannot be tampered with. and when the battery needs to be recycled, the battery cell can be better priced according to its health, thereby realizing value gain.

blockchain has activated the value of technology assets such as batteries, and provided a new way to solve the trust problem between financial institutions and scientific and technological enterprises. with the battery data on the blockchain, dudu battery swap obtained a 20 million yuan operating lease loan, and the comprehensive financing interest rate was reduced from 10% to 6%, greatly reducing the financing cost.

it is no coincidence that the first rwa issued by longsun technology and ant financial was launched in hong kong. in fact, hong kong has a very solid web3 foundation.

since the hong kong financial secretary issued the policy statement on the development of virtual assets in hong kong, the hong kong government has vigorously promoted the development of web3 in the region. in february 2023, the hong kong government successfully issued a tokenized green bond of hk$800 million, which is one of the typical rwa tokenization projects.

on april 11, 2023, the hong kong web3 association was established. at the ceremony that day, hong kong chief executive john lee expressed his expectations for the development of hong kong web3 in his speech, and emphasized the sar government's open attitude and firm determination in the development of virtual assets.

subsequently, on june 1, 2023, the hong kong securities and futures commission officially implemented new regulations on virtual asset trading platforms. the implementation of the new regulations not only improved the compliance of virtual asset transactions, but also laid the foundation for the development of hong kong in the fields of web3 and virtual asset ecology. this also marks an important milestone in the development of rwa in hong kong.

from another perspective, rwa is a bridge connecting the physical world and the digital world, which is an important part of web3 that hong kong has vigorously developed in recent years.

in may this year, the hong kong monetary authority announced the list of the architecture working group for the first batch of central bank digital currency (wcbdc) project ensemble, promoting the formulation of industry standards to support the interoperability between wcbdc, tokenized currencies and tokenized assets. the group members include not only multinational banks such as bank of china (hong kong), hang seng bank, hsbc, and standard chartered hong kong, but also zan, a subsidiary of ant digital technology, as a technology company to provide tokenized deposit technology solutions and participate in tokenized asset scenario innovation.

just yesterday (august 28), the hong kong monetary authority hosted the launch ceremony of the ensemble project (sandbox) and introduced the four main themes of the first round of experimental asset tokenization use cases. this marks a major step forward in the practical application of tokenization in the financial field.

in fact, as a strategic platform for mainland enterprises to "go global", hong kong is a "super contact person" linking mainland enterprises with overseas investors. the issuance of the first rwa in hong kong can also effectively help mainland enterprises obtain development funds in the global capital market, expand their business, and consolidate hong kong's differentiated advantages compared with other financial centers.

this year, the development of rwa has also entered the fast lane.

in 2024, several major financial institutions made strategic deployments in the rwa field for the first time.

blackrock usd institutional digital liquidity fund (buidl) is a tokenized fund based on the ethereum network, launched on march 20, 2024. the buidl fund consists of cash, u.s. treasury bonds and repurchase agreements, and aims to provide qualified investors with the opportunity to earn u.s. dollar returns through blockchain technology. by july this year, buidl has grown into the largest tokenized treasury bond fund, with more than $500 million in assets under management.

earlier, goldman sachs launched a digital asset platform and introduced three new tokenized products this year; siemens also issued 60 million euros of digital bonds on the blockchain; financial giants such as hsbc, jpmorgan chase and citigroup have also explored tokenized government bonds.

citibank released a research report in march 2023, which comprehensively analyzed the path for web3 to achieve one billion users and digital assets to reach tens of trillions of dollars. according to its forecast, by 2030, 4 trillion to 5 trillion dollars of assets will be tokenized, and the trade finance transaction volume based on blockchain technology will reach 1 trillion dollars.

rwa may bring some unprecedented changes to chinese companies' overseas expansion.

nowadays, chinese enterprises going overseas have changed from exporting products to manufacturing and branding. this means that chinese enterprises need to go deeper into overseas markets and take root in overseas markets. this inevitably faces the needs of overseas investment and overseas financing. however, the supporting overseas financing services are relatively lagging, making overseas financing difficult and expensive, which has become one of the main problems restricting the development of overseas chinese enterprises.

according to ocees data, in addition to relying on the parent company, applying for loans from domestic or host country banks and financial institutions is the main financing method for overseas chinese companies. however, if there is no clear collateral or credit assets recognized by local financial institutions, overseas companies cannot obtain bank loans.

rwa can solve this dilemma by tokenizing physical assets. the langxin technology new energy rwa project is an example of the unique value of ant financial in going overseas. in the new wave of globalization of chinese companies, it has greater imagination and solves many practical funding problems.

from the past when ant chain and its partners built the world's largest blockchain platform for new energy equipment to the completion of the last round of financing, it means that this model has run a closed loop. as more and more new energy companies join in the future, new energy rwa will push the industry web3 to the turning point of serving real enterprises.

after rwa has achieved the tokenization of physical assets, the digital asset flow of the real industry will also complete the last mile - digitizing physical assets and realizing expected returns. this is also the turning point for the digitalization of the real industry in the digital era from improving productivity to reconstructing production relations.