April marked a turning point in Hong Kong’s emergence as a global hub for regulated digital assets, as the city accelerated its Web3 compliance framework with unprecedented momentum. On April 10, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued its first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses, with leading financial institutions such as Standard Chartered-backed “Anchor” and HSBC among the early approvals from 36 applicants. Shortly afterward, on April 19, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) advanced the next phase of market development by authorizing tokenized investment products to be traded on licensed virtual asset platforms in secondary markets.
These coordinated policy moves signaled more than regulatory evolution—they laid the foundation for a structured, compliant digital asset economy. For Eddie Chong, Chairman of the SFI (Stable Coin Infrastructure) Ecosystem Foundation, this represents the long-anticipated alignment between regulatory clarity and infrastructure readiness. His overarching thesis—using stablecoins as the core settlement layer to unlock real-world asset (RWA) liquidity and power AI-driven financial systems—is now entering a phase of tangible execution.
Building Beyond Market Cycles: A Focus on Infrastructure Gaps
Eddie Chong’s approach to Web3 development has consistently centered on identifying structural inefficiencies rather than following market narratives. As Chairman of SFI, founder of X Infinity, and Executive Chairman of HK Web3 Club, he operates across a global ecosystem spanning Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with influence extending across more than 100 companies and a large-scale entrepreneurial community.
His investment and building philosophy is grounded in one principle: infrastructure before speculation.
After discovering Bitcoin in 2015, Chong quickly recognized that scalability limitations would prevent mass adoption in payments. This led him to develop X Infinity, a proprietary blockchain infrastructure initiative. During the 2019–2020 market downturn, instead of exiting the space, he shifted focus toward real-world asset tokenization, anticipating that blockchain’s sustainable future would depend on bridging physical and digital economies.
That conviction has since grown into a $5 billion RWA portfolio spanning more than 400 investments. In 2026, he co-founded SFI with a targeted mission: solving the most critical bottlenecks in RWA adoption—liquidity access and compliant user entry. Without these elements, tokenized assets remain structurally incomplete.
SFI: A Unified Infrastructure for Digital Value Flow
SFI is designed as a multi-layer ecosystem rather than a single product. Its objective is to connect stablecoins, RWA markets, AI systems, and real-world consumption into a unified financial network where value flows continuously across each layer.
At the center is Solulu Club, which provides the ecosystem’s liquidity backbone with more than 200,000 active users and strong transactional depth. Surrounding it are five interconnected components:
- Solulu Pay, enabling compliant fiat and crypto payment infrastructure that bridges traditional finance and Web3.
- Caviar, a luxury commerce platform allowing real-world spending using stablecoins.
- COPX DAO, leveraging AI-driven quantitative models to optimize trading strategies and liquidity efficiency.
- RWA Incubator, supporting institutional-grade tokenization and compliant asset onboarding.
- RWA Exchange, enabling secondary market trading and price discovery for tokenized assets.
Together, SFI, COPX DAO, and Caviar form what Chong refers to as the “Iron Triangle”—a system where infrastructure, value creation, and consumption reinforce each other in a continuous loop. Stablecoins act as the central settlement layer connecting all components.
Hong Kong’s Policy Shift as a Structural Catalyst
For years, RWA development was constrained by two key challenges: lack of regulated access points and insufficient liquidity infrastructure. Hong Kong’s April policy expansion directly addressed both issues.
The introduction of stablecoin licensing provided regulatory clarity for issuance and circulation, while the authorization of secondary trading for tokenized assets created real liquidity channels for digital markets. Together, these developments positioned Hong Kong as one of the most advanced compliant Web3 jurisdictions globally.
SFI capitalized on this momentum by actively participating in the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, where it showcased its integrated ecosystem spanning payments, trading, tokenization, and consumption.
During industry discussions, Chong emphasized a core structural issue in the RWA sector: tokenization alone does not guarantee usability. Without users and liquidity, assets remain inactive and fail to generate meaningful value. He highlighted SFI’s competitive advantage in its established user base and its ability to create real-world consumption scenarios for stablecoins, particularly within high-net-worth segments.
Simultaneously, SFI continues to expand its global compliance framework, securing licenses across jurisdictions including the United States and Canada, while advancing regulatory processes in regions such as the UAE and Hong Kong. This infrastructure is designed not only for internal operations but also as a reusable compliance backbone for the wider Web3 ecosystem.
The Next Frontier: Convergence of RWA and AI
Chong believes that the current phase of RWA expansion represents only the beginning of a much larger transformation. The next stage will be defined by the convergence of real-world assets and artificial intelligence.
On-chain RWA assets have already surpassed $25 billion, with projections suggesting exponential growth into the trillions by 2030. At the same time, AI systems are evolving from analytical tools into autonomous agents capable of executing financial transactions and managing capital flows independently.
He views this convergence as inevitable and structurally aligned. RWA provides the underlying value base, while AI provides the intelligence layer required to activate and optimize it at scale.
Within SFI, this integration is already operational. COPX DAO uses AI models to execute automated trading strategies, including hedging, arbitrage, and yield optimization. In parallel, AI-driven analytics generate real-time pricing signals based on market conditions, asset fundamentals, and behavioral data—addressing long-standing inefficiencies in valuation and liquidity discovery.
Chong’s framework remains consistent and clear: compliance forms the foundation, stablecoins act as the axis, AI serves as the engine, and RWA provides the fuel. Together, they form a self-reinforcing financial flywheel.
From Vision to Systemic Execution
Eddie Chong’s journey reflects a consistent, long-term philosophy: identify structural gaps early and build infrastructure ahead of market demand.
With SFI, that philosophy is transitioning into a functioning ecosystem that integrates finance, technology, and real-world economic activity. Hong Kong’s regulatory acceleration has acted as a catalyst, but the durability of this transformation depends on scalable infrastructure capable of sustaining liquidity, compliance, and adoption across cycles.
As stablecoins, RWA, and AI continue to converge, the value flywheel Chong envisioned is no longer theoretical. It is becoming an operational system—designed not for short-term speculation, but for long-term, real-world value creation.
Follow SFI and ecosystem partners:
- SoluluPay: https://x.com/SoluluClub_web3
- Caviar: https://x.com/shopcaviar
- COPX DAO: https://x.com/Copx_DAO
Related links:
https://hackernoon.com/preview/69dd93f363a00fd65ee51d8f
https://www.me.news/contents/273131
https://www.techub.news/articleDetail/9ecd8c5e-616d-41bf-9da2-c0a99e918ddf