Hong Kong launches the first interest-bearing tokenized security

"The current development path of RWA in Hong Kong, China, is to 'move as much as possible on-chain' within the regulatory boundaries, but it will never easily cross the control lines of identification, custody, and circulation. In brief, the technical aspect strives for standardization and modularization. The legal and market aspects prioritize stability and progress, with control as a priority."

On June 27, a tokenized security with interest was launched in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attracting significant attention from the local financial market.

Just the day before, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China announced the "Digital Asset Development Policy Declaration 2.0", which clearly proposed to promote the development of digital assets by expanding the types of tokenized products.

As the latest case of on-chain RWA (Real World Assets) products moving from concept to implementation, according to the information announced by HashKey Chain on that day, GF Securities (Hong Kong) has fully integrated with HashKey Chain as the core on-chain issuance network and has issued Hong Kong's first daily redeemable tokenized security, namely "GF Token".

The so-called "tokenization" is generally defined according to documents previously issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission as the process of recording the rights of assets recorded in traditional ledgers onto a programmable platform using distributed ledger technology. The nature of "tokenized securities" is essentially traditional securities packaged as tokens.

The existing laws and regulatory provisions applicable to the traditional securities market continue to apply to tokenized securities. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has also pointed out multiple times that tokenization can bring some potential benefits to the financial market, but it has also recognized that the use of this new technology may introduce new risks.

As a tokenized security issued by GF Securities (Hong Kong) based on its credit support, this issuance simultaneously offers investors three currency types: USD, HKD, and offshore RMB. Among them, the USD tokenized security's yield is anchored to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), providing users with a cash management tool priced in USD.

The subscription and trading of GF Token are limited to institutional professional investors and high-net-worth individual professional investors. Relevant parties claim to support daily interest calculations. In addition, GF Token features multi-point distribution and token custody characteristics. This practice means that investors can subscribe through GF Securities (Hong Kong) or HashKey Exchange, and can also hold this tokenized security using traditional securities custody models.

From the perspective of HashKey Chain, as the core issuance network of this product, multiple business entities under HashKey Group have deeply participated in this on-chain issuance. HashKey Chain stated that it will continue to expand cooperation with traditional financial institutions, including brokerages and banks, to further develop the on-chain issuance and circulation mechanisms for compliant assets.

According to its official website, HashKey Group is a digital asset financial services group. Its Web3 ecosystem includes the licensed virtual asset exchange HashKey Exchange in Hong Kong, the global virtual asset exchange HashKey Global, and also includes on-chain ecosystems and the developed Ethereum L2 HashKey Chain.

From the perspective of GF Securities (Hong Kong), in January 2024, it will be the first to issue the first tokenized securities applicable to Hong Kong law in Hong Kong, becoming the first Chinese-funded securities firm to complete the minting, issuance, and distribution of independently created financial assets on the public chain.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission released the "Tokenized Circular" and other regulatory guidelines in November 2023, after which this project was also regarded as the first tokenized securities issuance locally. Since then, GF Securities (Hong Kong) has gradually launched tokenized securities linked to financial assets such as stocks. In January 2025, it collaborated with relevant parties to implement the first distribution and trading of fund underlying tokenized securities.

As of the morning of June 28, when the reporter from Caijing sent the稿, both GF Securities (Hong Kong) and HashKey Chain have not responded to Caijing's interview questions regarding further details about GF Token.

Liu Honglin, the founder of Shanghai Mankun Law Firm, which focuses on servicing the Web 3.0 new economy sector, analyzed in Caijing that based on existing publicly available news materials, GF Token goes further than previous tokenized products in Hong Kong, not just "on-chain issuance + brokerage account accomplice," but introduces a structure closer to real financial transaction scenarios with multi-channel subscription, on-chain custody, and multi-currency participation.

"Investors can complete subscriptions through broker channels or through the HashKey exchange, and the tokens held can be placed in traditional accounts or managed directly on-chain. It sounds very open, but there are at least two core directions worth discussing," said Liu Honglin.

One question is whether holding on-chain means it can be freely transferred and circulated anonymously. Liu Honglin believes that "GF Token is likely still controlled by a whitelist mechanism to manage circulation rights. After all, this is a tokenized security issued in Hong Kong, not a DeFi project. Tokenized securities must be issued, traded, and custodied on qualified platforms, which inherently implies entry barriers and compliance checks. Even if investors hold tokens on-chain, this address is likely bound to identification, and assets cannot be casually transferred to other wallets, nor will they be allowed to enter the open market for free buying and selling."

The second point is whether the daily interest calculation is settled on-chain. Liu Honglin pointed out that "the GF Token interest mechanism is more likely to remain within the account system. The on-chain part resembles an asset structure and transaction 'ledger' rather than a settlement channel. It adopts a combination structure of 'on-chain accounting + offline payment'. In the future, with the implementation of stablecoin regulations in Hong Kong, supporting the use of HKD or USD stablecoins as payment tools, this structure has the opportunity to further evolve towards on-chain dividend distribution. Currently, the possibility of direct on-chain settlement is low.

Ronghui Gu, a member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region web3 development task force and CEO of CertiK, further explained to Caijing that "tokenization does not equate to free transferability or anonymous circulation. From the structure of GF Token, it can be seen that identification binding and restricted transfer are necessary for a regulated environment." As a global leader in Web3 security services, CertiK was founded by professors from Columbia University and Yale University.

Ronghui Gu also pointed out that "interest calculation involves relatively complex mathematical computations. These computations consume a lot of resources when implemented on-chain and may also introduce some security issues, such as precision loss. Currently, some on-chain settlement (daily interest calculation) projects are able to operate because the results are computed off-chain and then updated on-chain through a centralized method. The core logic of many projects is still carried out off-chain."

The launch of the GF Token may also reflect a reality that the current development path of RWA in Hong Kong is to "lean towards on-chain as much as possible within regulatory boundaries," but it will never easily cross the control lines on identification, accomplice, and circulation. Things on-chain can be done, but they must find anchor points within the legal system. In short, the technical aspect strives for standardization and modularization. The legal and market aspects prioritize steady progress and controllability," said Liu Honglin.