From digital assets experimentation to execution

Standard Chartered's regional head of Securities Services for Greater China and North Asia, Pierre Mengal, writes that the digital asset conversation in the region has moved from whether the technology has potential to where it can solve business problems inside regulated markets at institutional scale. Client and policymaker discussions, he says, now focus on faster and more transparent settlement, better liquidity management, new investment and distribution channels, and more efficient use of collateral.

Markets in the region are advancing at different speeds. Hong Kong is described as among the more mature, with a broad framework spanning custody, tokenised funds, digital money and real-world asset applications. Taiwan is approaching an inflection point following passage of its Virtual Asset Services Act, which sets out licensing, custody, cybersecurity, asset segregation and internal control requirements. Mengal notes that clarity on tokenised securities and stablecoins, including ownership, settlement, accounting and taxation, will be critical as implementation rules take shape. Mainland China continues to prioritise controlled, policy-led applications of distributed ledger technology and digital currency while keeping boundaries around virtual assets, and South Korea and Japan are developing custody, trading and investor protection frameworks. Mengal argues there is no single regional template, which raises the importance of interoperability and regulatory dialogue.

The article frames three forces driving adoption. On regulation, Mengal emphasises jurisdiction-specific clarity on asset classification, custody, settlement, disclosure and investor protection, along with legal certainty on ownership, settlement finality and insolvency, with sandboxes cited as a way to test risks early. On tokenisation, he points to settlement cycles, fragmented records, limited distribution and collateral mobility as friction points where use cases are most compelling. On digital money, he argues stablecoins, tokenised deposits and central bank digital currencies will serve different purposes, and that subscriptions, redemptions and delivery-versus-payment settlement could be made more efficient if digital money connects with bank accounts, FX markets and payment rails.

As examples of commercial progress, the article cites a leading corporate that worked with Standard Chartered to tokenise HKD, CNH and USD account balances on the blockchain-based Whale treasury platform, enabling near-real-time, 24/7 liquidity transfers between its entities. Standard Chartered also supported AXG in what the article describes as Hong Kong's first institutional crypto-asset custody arrangement offered by a global systemically important bank. The bank says it is the first authorised bank distributor of HKDAP, supporting tokenised money market fund settlement and cross-border payments, and it cites its regulated capabilities in the UAE and Luxembourg as providing GCNA clients cross-border access to the wider digital asset ecosystem. The piece is a bylined commentary from the bank and presents its own business activity as evidence of the trend.