Asia’s Push to Build Tokenised Capital Markets

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev predicted a “tokenisation supercycle” last month, with trillions of dollars in real-world assets (RWAs) moving on-chain, as capital markets are increasingly remade by software. Across Asia, regulators are already building the legal and market infrastructure needed to support that shift. 

On 16 September 2026, Hong Kong’s 2026 Policy Address committed to allowing regulated stablecoins to trade on licensed virtual-asset trading platforms (VATPs), while setting out plans to develop tokenised gold markets. The directives build on Hong Kong’s earlier successful digital bond issuances.

There’s a wider regional build-out happening. South Korea wrote distributed ledgers into its securities law in January. Kazakhstan had already extended its multilateral trading facility regime to tokenised instruments in October 2024, and has since created a new licensing framework. 

These moves preceded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s issuance of new rules for tokenised securities in the United States and demonstrate just how quickly Asian jurisdictions can move from feasibility studies to serious securities-market design. These new markets are waiting on liquidity as the world catches up. 

Building the Rules to Attract the Business

South Korea’s approach is methodical. On 15 January 2026, the National Assembly passed amendments that recognised distributed ledgers as legally valid securities account books. 

The revised law takes effect on 4 February 2027 and a new roadmap sets out a three-phase implementation process. Phase one covers money-market funds and bonds reserved for institutional investors, unlisted shares through trust structures and publicly offered fractional investment securities.

Phase two extends to all publicly offered securities types, on a timeline the FSC left open. Phase three adds on-chain payments infrastructure linked to stablecoins, contingent on incoming stablecoin legislation.

Until now, each tokenised offering has required its own legal scaffolding. Korea’s new framework is designed so the second issuance, and the twentieth, can follow the same rails as the first.

From Regulatory Clarity to Commercial Advantage

Hong Kong is addressing a practical problem: issuing a tokenised product does not, by itself, create a functioning market. Where Korea is rebuilding legal foundations, Hong Kong is developing the rules for trading, liquidity and cash settlement.

Two SFC circulars, both dated 20 April 2026, address the trading side. The SFC requires clarity on the ownership rights a token represents and whether settlement becomes final on-chain or off-chain. They also now permit secondary trading for retail via licensed VATPs, subject to prefunding, NAV-deviation alerts and at least one market maker per product.

These requirements address the gaps between a token’s trading conditions and those of its underlying assets. A tokenised fund unit can change hands at two in the morning Hong Kong time while the underlying portfolio is unpriced and the fund’s dealing window is closed. The circular requires providers to disclose that mismatch, alongside the risks of fragmented liquidity.

The cash side remains a work in progress. Hong Kong’s government priced approximately HK$10 billion equivalent of digital green bonds in November 2025, across Hong Kong dollar, renminbi, US dollar and euro tranches — the world’s largest digital bond issuance at the time, according to the HKMA. Separately, the HKMA’s EnsembleTX initiative introduced real-value transactions in tokenised deposits, as it works towards settlement in tokenised central-bank money.

Where Korea is building tokenisation into the machinery of existing securities markets, Hong Kong is defining how those assets can trade and settle once issued. Those choices determine how the market functions, and the risks investors retain.

A Bid for Capital and Market Share

Kazakhstan’s Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), where Bitfinex Securities is regulated, addresses a practical question: once a tokenised instrument has been issued, which venues can trade it, and which investor protections apply?

The AIFC’s Investment Token Framework, effective from 18 October 2024, brought security, derivative and environmental-instrument tokens under a common regulatory category. Alongside it, the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) amended its rules to allow the trading of Qualified Investment Tokens within existing venues.

The effect is to give eligible tokens a route into secondary markets. Issuers gain clarity about where their instruments can trade, and investors retain the protections attached to established categories.

Separately, a new framework from the Kazakh national bank took effect on 1 May 2026. It distinguishes platforms responsible for issuance and ownership records from trading platforms and crypto exchanges, with registration or licensing requirements according to activity. 

Kazakhstan therefore has two legally distinct routes for digital assets: the AIFC’s regime and the national framework. Each clarifies who can operate the market and under what rules.

For Asia’s financial centres, tokenisation offers a chance to capture the business that grows around a securities market: issuance, trading and custody. Hong Kong has made digital assets part of its financial-hub strategy. Kazakhstan’s AIFC links tokenised assets to attracting foreign capital and diversifying the economy. 

Jurisdictions that establish rules early can attract issuers and intermediaries while firms are still choosing where to build. Korea has a domestic incentive, too. Its reforms open up distribution for its investment products, creating new routes for local businesses to raise capital. 

While recent changes have come at a quick pace, they wouldn’t have been possible without work beginning years earlier. Korea dates its legislative effort to 2023 and Kazakhstan about the same time.

As these preparations are becoming usable infrastructure, the economic case now depends on whether clearer rules and broader distribution bring enough investors into these markets to sustain trading. Winning an issuance is one milestone. Giving investors a dependable market is another.