Hong Kong’s Web3 Structural Shift: Eddie Chong’s Stablecoin-Led SFI Ecosystem and the RWA–AI Convergence Flywheel

April marked a decisive structural acceleration in Hong Kong’s rise as a global hub for regulated digital assets, as the city advanced a series of landmark Web3 policy initiatives. On April 10, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued its first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses, with major institutions such as Standard Chartered-backed “Anchor” and HSBC among the early approvals from a pool of 36 applicants. Shortly after, on April 19, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) expanded the regulatory framework further by allowing tokenized authorized investment products to be traded on licensed virtual asset platforms in secondary markets.

These coordinated policy actions signaled a shift from experimentation to structured financial infrastructure. For Eddie Chong, Chairman of the SFI (Stable Coin Infrastructure) Ecosystem Foundation, this moment represents the long-prepared alignment between regulatory clarity and ecosystem readiness. His central thesis—using stablecoins as the settlement backbone to connect real-world assets (RWA) and artificial intelligence systems—has now entered a phase of full-scale execution.

Building Before Demand: Infrastructure Over Narrative

Eddie Chong’s Web3 strategy has consistently focused on structural gaps rather than market cycles. 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 across more than 100 companies and a large entrepreneurial network.

His approach is simple: build the layers the industry will eventually depend on.

After entering Bitcoin in 2015, he quickly identified scalability limitations that restricted real-world payment use cases. This insight led to the creation of X Infinity, a blockchain infrastructure initiative focused on performance and scalability. During the 2019–2020 downturn, he shifted toward real-world asset tokenization, anticipating that blockchain’s long-term relevance would depend on bridging physical and digital economies.

That early positioning has expanded into a $5 billion RWA portfolio spanning more than 400 investments. In 2026, he co-founded SFI with a clear objective: solve the core bottlenecks in RWA adoption—liquidity and compliant access infrastructure—without which tokenized assets cannot function as real financial instruments.

SFI: A Unified System for Continuous Value Movement

SFI is structured as a multi-layer infrastructure ecosystem rather than a standalone platform. Its purpose is to connect stablecoins, RWA markets, AI systems, and real-world consumption into a continuous, self-reinforcing value loop.

At its core is Solulu Club, providing liquidity infrastructure supported by over 200,000 active users and strong transactional depth. Around this foundation are five interconnected modules:

• Solulu Pay, enabling compliant fiat and crypto payment rails that connect traditional finance with Web3.
• Caviar, a luxury commerce platform allowing real-world spending using stablecoins.
• COPX DAO, using AI-driven quantitative systems to optimize trading efficiency and liquidity performance.
• RWA Incubator, supporting compliant asset tokenization and institutional onboarding.
• RWA Exchange, enabling secondary market trading and price discovery for tokenized assets.

Together, SFI, COPX DAO, and Caviar form the “Iron Triangle”—a tightly connected system where infrastructure, value creation, and consumption continuously reinforce each other. Stablecoins serve as the central settlement axis that binds the entire structure.

Hong Kong’s Policy Shift as a Scaling Engine

For years, RWA development faced two fundamental constraints: lack of compliant access infrastructure and insufficient liquidity formation. Hong Kong’s April regulatory expansion directly addressed both challenges.

Stablecoin licensing introduced a regulated issuance framework, while secondary market approval for tokenized assets enabled real liquidity pathways for digital instruments. This positioned Hong Kong as one of the most advanced regulated Web3 jurisdictions globally.

SFI leveraged this shift through active participation in the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, where it demonstrated an integrated ecosystem spanning payments, tokenization, trading, and real-world consumption.

During industry discussions, Chong emphasized a key structural limitation: tokenization alone does not create usable value. Without users and liquidity, assets remain inactive. He highlighted SFI’s advantage in combining an established user base with real consumption channels that turn stablecoins into functional financial instruments.

At the same time, SFI continues expanding its global compliance footprint, securing regulatory approvals in the United States and Canada, with ongoing progress in the UAE and Hong Kong. This framework is designed both for internal scalability and as reusable infrastructure for the wider Web3 ecosystem.

The Next Phase: RWA and AI Integration at Scale

Chong views the current RWA expansion as only the first stage of a larger structural transformation. The next phase will be defined by deep integration between real-world assets and artificial intelligence.

On-chain RWA assets have already exceeded $25 billion, with projections pointing toward multi-trillion-dollar expansion by 2030. Meanwhile, AI systems are evolving from analytical tools into autonomous agents capable of executing financial transactions and managing capital flows.

He sees this convergence as inevitable: RWA provides real-world value backing, while AI provides the intelligence layer required to activate and optimize that value at scale.

Within SFI, this integration is already operational. COPX DAO applies AI models to automated trading strategies such as arbitrage, hedging, and yield optimization. AI-driven analytics also generate real-time pricing signals based on market conditions, asset fundamentals, and sentiment data—addressing long-standing inefficiencies in valuation and liquidity discovery.

Chong’s framework remains consistent: compliance forms the foundation, stablecoins act as the axis, AI serves as the engine, and RWA provides the fuel. Together, they form a self-sustaining financial flywheel.

From Vision to Operating Infrastructure

Eddie Chong’s trajectory reflects a consistent philosophy: build foundational systems ahead of demand and focus on structural inefficiencies others overlook.

With SFI, that philosophy is now transitioning into a functioning ecosystem that connects financial infrastructure, AI systems, and real-world economic activity. Hong Kong’s regulatory acceleration has acted as a catalyst, but long-term success 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 financial system designed for continuous, real-world value creation at scale.