Chinese real estate giant Seazen Group establishes Digital Assets Institute in Hong Kong to tokenize assets including private bonds and shopping center NFTs. The move leverages Hong Kong’s crypto-friendly regulations as mainland China considers lifting its digital assets ban.
Seazen Group, one of China’s largest real estate and investment firms, has announced its intent to raise funds through the creation of tokenized real world assets (RWAs) amid the shifting Chinese crypto landscape.
According to an Aug. 29 report from Bloomberg, the firm will establish the Seazen Digital Assets Institute to take advantage of Hong Kong’s progressive stance on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Real Estate Giant Turns to Digital Assets Amid Industry Recovery Struggles
Vice Chairman Wang Yifen, the executive tapped to lead the Institute, will reportedly prioritize the issuance of tokenized financial instruments including private and convertible bonds as the firm expands into tokenized RWAs in order to bring on private debt.
At least some of Seazen’s RWAs will be issued in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) related to the company’s Wuyue Plaza shopping centers and various other debt tokenization efforts.
The firm’s efforts to shore up its digital holdings follow a tumultuous period for the Chinese housing and real estate sector which still hasn’t fully recovered from a 2021 market crash. Seazen Group was one of the few real estate firms able to avoid financial default and remain solvent during this period.
Beijing Signals Potential Shift Away from Strict Cryptocurrency Prohibitions
As Coinspeaker recently reported, the Chinese government is slowly beginning to consider lifting longstanding sanctions against the use and operation of cryptocurrency and related “virtual currency” products. While many such products and services are legal in Hong Kong, mainland China has held a blanket policy against most forms of digital assets trading.
Recent reports indicate that China plans to lift its crypto ban and allow the development and adoption of yuan-backed stablecoins. It remains unclear at this time if the government intends to further rescind its digital assets ban to allow open trading for popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC $108 269 24h volatility: 3.7% Market cap: $2.16 T Vol. 24h: $51.64 B and Ethereum ETH $4 353 24h volatility: 3.4% Market cap: $525.28 B Vol. 24h: $35.95 B or the establishment of local cryptocurrency exchanges.
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