Hong Kong Web3 Carnival: A Watershed Moment for Web3 Entering the Implementation Stage

The message conveyed by the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival in 2026 is already markedly different from industry discussions in previous years.

If the market previously kept testing whether “Web3 has real value,” then this time, from the speeches of Paul Chan, Charles Ho, and Vincent Ma, it’s clear that the focus of the discussion has fundamentally shifted: Web3 is no longer a technical proposition that needs to be proven, but is entering an institutionalized and structured implementation phase.

More precisely, Hong Kong is not trying to build a “Web3 industry cluster,” but rather a set of operating systems aimed at the next-generation financial system.

From “Asset Digitization” to “Financial Restructuring”

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan repeatedly emphasized the significance of “tokenization” in his speech, clearly stating that the assets included in this process have expanded from early crypto assets to currencies, bonds, real estate, and future income rights.

The key to this change is not in the technical form but in the underlying logic of the financial structure itself shifting.

In traditional financial systems, liquidity, divisibility, and participation thresholds of assets are often determined by centralized intermediaries; under the tokenization framework, these constraints are re-encoded as on-chain rules, allowing assets to be split, circulated, and settled through programmatic means.

This signifies a more fundamental change: Finance is no longer about “who owns the assets,” but about “how assets flow.”

In the past, finance was about a few people allocating assets; under the new framework, assets begin to flow with lower friction to a broader range of participants.

Therefore, the essence of tokenization is not “on-chain,” but a shift: from “institution-led” to “rule-driven” mechanisms for financial resource allocation.

This transition lays the groundwork for larger-scale financial innovations in the future.

AI Introduction: From Efficiency Tool to Economic Actor

If tokenization reshapes “assets,” then the introduction of artificial intelligence begins to reshape “participants.”

Vincent Ma, member of the Executive Committee of the China Financial Society and former Chairman of Beijing Financial Holdings Group, proposed the “DAE (Decentralized Agentic Economy)” framework, which offers a forward-looking explanatory path: in the future economic system, AI will no longer be just decision-support tools but will become independent economic agents capable of acting on their own.

This judgment is based on three key premises:

• AI Agents possess continuous evolving decision-making capabilities, capable of strategy selection in complex environments;

• Blockchain provides their identity, accounts, and a verifiable execution environment;

• Programmable currencies and smart contracts enable them to participate directly in value exchanges.

Within this framework, a fundamental change will occur in the financial system: transaction behaviors will no longer be entirely human-driven but will gradually shift toward a hybrid model of “machine participation and rule constraints.”

This not only means increased transaction efficiency but also a reconstruction of market operation logic. For example, in high-frequency trading, liquidity management, and cross-market coordination, the integration of AI Agents with on-chain infrastructure could significantly compress traditional intermediary layers.

This is why Paul Chan emphasized: “This intersection of interest (AI Agents) and Web3 with artificial intelligence will change the ‘rules of the game.’”

Institutional Level: From “Exploration” to “Implementable”

A clear technical path does not automatically mean the system can operate. The key to implementation lies in institutional arrangements.

In this regard, the regulatory signals from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s Intermediaries Department, represented by Executive Director Charles Ho, are relatively clear: Hong Kong is advancing its digital asset system from “policy statements” to “execution frameworks.”

Over the past year, Hong Kong has achieved three critical transitions:

• Systematic expansion of the regulatory scope—exchanges, custody, pledges, and derivatives are gradually incorporated into a unified system, providing a foundation for institutional participation;

• Gradual liberalization at the product level—from tokenized funds to money market instruments, regulatory pathways for replicable products are forming;

• Clarification of infrastructure directions—especially stablecoins, which are beginning to enter core policy focus.

The combined result is: Web3 in Hong Kong has moved from “discussable” to “implementable.”

Stability and Continuity: Hong Kong’s Differentiated Advantage

Globally, different regions show distinct attitudes toward Web3.

The U.S. frequently adjusts policies, leading to regulatory uncertainty; Europe emphasizes strict regulation, which somewhat compresses innovation space.

In contrast, Hong Kong has chosen a different path:

• Principles of “same risk, same regulation”

• Gradual release of innovation through sandbox mechanisms

• Maintaining policy continuity

Legislator Ronny Tong emphasized “stability and transparency” in his speech. On the surface, this is a principled statement, but in the current global regulatory environment, it actually constitutes a significant institutional advantage: when uncertainty becomes the norm, stability itself becomes a scarce resource.

This is especially critical for long-term capital and institutional participants.

From Industry Competition to Systemic Competition

Combining these dimensions, Hong Kong is promoting not just a single technology or industry, but a systemic construction:

• Asset digitization pathways represented by RWA (Real-World Assets);

• Settlement networks centered on stablecoins;

• Economic restructuring driven by AI Agents.

These three main lines are gradually coupling on the same infrastructure, ultimately aiming not at “who is doing Web3,” but at who can define the operational mode of the next-generation financial system.

In this sense, Hong Kong’s role is shifting from participant to rule-maker.

When assets, rules, and participants all change simultaneously, the financial system often enters a phase of accelerated restructuring.

The current question may no longer be whether Web3 has long-term value, but rather: how the new power structures will be redistributed in this systemic overhaul.