Hong Kong's stablecoin and the RWA market have seen the first wave of exits.

On September 29, sources revealed to Foresight News that at least four Chinese-backed financial institutions, including Guotai Junan International, have recently, out of prudence, withdrawn their Hong Kong stablecoin license applications or postponed their related attempts in the RWA track.

A senior executive at a Hong Kong financial institution, Morgan, told Foresight News that some Chinese banks have taken a more cautious approach after receiving guidance from regulators in the stablecoin track, with several institutions choosing to postpone entry. Industry insiders pointed out that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has set two important deadlines for market participants: expressing intention to apply before August 31 and submitting the formal application before September 30. This means that institutions that have not submitted their applications by tomorrow will miss the first batch of stablecoin licenses.

In terms of Real World Assets (RWA), some Chinese institutions have also postponed related business attempts due to regulatory guidance. Lee, a practitioner close to a Chinese securities firm, revealed to Foresight News that several institutions, including Guotai Junan International, have paused their RWA-related operations in Hong Kong, and Guotai Junan's RWA business has been suspended. Lee also disclosed that another Chinese securities firm listed on the A-share market has received a notice to stop its ongoing RWA attempts in Hong Kong.

Within the industry, some practitioners believe that stablecoins are also a subtype of RWA. The essence of a US Dollar stablecoin is to tokenize the real-world asset of the US Dollar.

Real World Assets (RWA) tokenize assets in the real world. The most common types currently include US Stock RWA (stock tokenization), US Treasury RWA (treasury bond tokenization), Gold RWA (gold tokenization), and so on. As an emerging industry, RWA has developed rapidly in the United States. For example, the US's largest online brokerage, Robinhood, has tried to launch Stock RWA (stock tokenization), tokenizing private equity of well-known companies like SpaceX and OpenAI, allowing retail investors to buy tokenized equity of unlisted companies, attracting global attention from the financial industry.

In the United States, stablecoins and RWAs are developing rapidly, with giants such as Paypal, Robinhood, and Nasdaq all entering the field. In Europe, nine major European banks have announced that they will jointly launch a compliant Euro stablecoin next year. In Hong Kong, the launch of an HK Dollar stablecoin is imminent, with over 77 companies having submitted stablecoin license application intentions. Meanwhile, under the supervision of regulators, Hong Kong's RWA has been piloted in the primary market for over two years, with currently thirty to forty projects in operation.

However, in response to the frenzy of Mainland institutions from industries such as banking, securities, and the internet rushing into the Hong Kong stablecoin and RWA track, a situation that was becoming overly heated, Mainland regulatory authorities have chosen to cool things down.