Dr. Xiao Feng's Full Speech: Asset Tokenization and 24/7 Trading — Blockchain Is Restructuring the Global Financial Markets

On September 23, 2026, the 12th Blockchain Global Summit, hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, successfully concluded at the Hyatt on the Bund in Shanghai. With the theme "Blockchain New Economy · Intelligent Chain Symbiosis," this year's summit joined hands with diamond sponsor Qtum, strategic partner Wanxiang Innovation Energy City, gold sponsors Frontier Technology Institute (FTI), RD Technologies, Arkreen, Bianjie.AI, and Lianxiang Zhilian, as well as exclusive dinner sponsor Sui Foundation and other ecosystem partners, bringing together guests from the fields of policy, finance, academia, technology, and industry to jointly present an annual event that spanned financial innovation and the technological frontier, gathering industry wisdom and practical achievements.

At the summit, Dr. Xiao Feng, Chairman of Wanxiang Blockchain and Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group, delivered a blockbuster speech titled "Asset Tokenization and 24/7 Trading — Blockchain Reconstructing Global Financial Markets." The following is a transcript of the speech, with modifications that do not affect the original meaning.

Hello, distinguished guests!

After a full day of sharing, everyone must be quite tired. On behalf of the organizers, I would like to express my gratitude to all the attendees.

Today, all the guests' presentations roughly followed two main threads: (1) Tokenization + 7×24 hour round-the-clock trading — guests in both the morning and afternoon spoke about these topics from different angles and perspectives; (2) the relationship between AI and blockchain. I think discussing this topic is extremely valuable, especially now.

Today I want to share a topic related to financial asset tokenization and 7×24 hour round-the-clock trading. I want to approach it from one angle: when an international financial center makes such a determined effort to tokenize financial assets and to carry out 7×24 round-the-clock trading, what impact will it have on other international financial centers around the world, and how should other international financial centers respond? So far, there has not been much public discussion on this topic.

Last night Beijing time, which was daytime on September 22 US time, the "2026 12th U.S. Treasury Market Conference" was held in New York. This symposium was co-hosted by five institutions: the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the New York Fed, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The theme of the CFTC Chairman's speech at this conference aligns very well with what I want to share today. Let me briefly recount it for you.

The core message of his speech was roughly as follows: Under the influence of large-scale Tokenization, on-chain finance, and 24×7 round-the-clock trading, the changes in the U.S. financial system over the next decade will exceed the changes in the U.S. financial system over the past several decades.

What changes have occurred in the U.S. financial system over the past several decades? The changes over the past 20 years have mainly been brought about by internet information technology. Professor Chen Long also spoke about this this morning, so I won't repeat it. Looking further back, from the 1970s to 2000, the U.S. financial system and financial infrastructure — the so-called trading, clearing, and settlement systems — underwent one iteration.

Many experts today mentioned "DTCC" (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation). This company was founded in 1999. It was not a newly created company, but rather consolidated the decentralized depository, registration, and settlement systems of the past several decades in the United States. It took nearly 25 years for the United States to absorb and merge decentralized settlement and registration companies one by one, ultimately forming DTCC through consolidation in 1999.

In the 1960s, because financial infrastructure could not keep up with the development of financial markets, the New York Stock Exchange closed every Wednesday, mainly because there was not enough time to clear trades. At that time, stocks were still paper certificates. When trading volume grew large, moving paper stock certificates from Goldman Sachs clients to Morgan Stanley clients could not be settled in time.

As you all know, Nasdaq announced that it will launch "23×5" trading on December 6 this year — trading 5 days a week, 23 hours a day. This shows that financial infrastructure and the registration and settlement systems for stock trading have already undergone tremendous changes.

Over the past 50 years, U.S. financial markets and the financial system have undergone earth-shaking changes. But the CFTC Chairman said last night that changes in the United States over the next decade will even exceed those of the past several decades.

What factors will drive the changes of the next decade? He mentioned three — Tokenization, 24×7 round-the-clock trading, and On-chain Finance. In his speech, he actually also mentioned a fourth, namely Stablecoin. These four technologies will make the changes in U.S. financial markets over the next decade exceed those of the previous several decades. I will also approach from this angle to discuss the changes these technologies may bring to global financial markets.

I. The Financial Market System

Let us first review what the financial market system actually looks like in theory. The theoretical financial market system roughly consists of five layers:

(1) Central bank.

At the very top is the central bank. The central bank is the "master valve" of money — all money is issued by the central bank, and regardless of whether an institution gets into trouble or the macroeconomy encounters problems, the central bank is the lender of last resort.

A few years ago, U.S. interest rates suddenly rose. Rising interest rates mean that U.S. Treasury bonds issued during the low-interest period declined in price. As a result, the decline in the price of U.S. Treasury bonds issued during the low-interest-rate cycle caused paper losses for U.S. banks. Some have calculated that when U.S. interest rates suddenly rose a few years ago, U.S. banks lost close to $600 billion in capital. After that, a blockchain company that everyone is familiar with emerged — the stablecoin company Circle. Circle had placed over $3 billion in reserves at Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, having become insolvent due to losses on its Treasury holdings, experienced a bank run, and over $3 billion in USDC reserves nearly went to zero. Under the U.S. deposit insurance system, the compensation Circle could receive was very, very small — just a few hundred thousand dollars.

This was not a loss caused by poor management at any single bank, but a problem brought about by the overall rise in U.S. interest rates. In the end, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury stepped in to rescue the situation. The Treasury and the Fed announced that during this period, U.S. bank deposits would not be compensated according to the deposit insurance system — for banks that failed due to insufficient capital adequacy ratios, all depositors' funds would be 100% federally protected and 100% compensated. This is what is called the "lender of last resort."

In 2008, why did Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs apply to become "bank holding companies"? Because after the financial crisis, liquidity on Wall Street dried up. Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley needed to borrow and repo hundreds of billions of dollars in the financial markets every day just to keep operating. But borrowing required paying 24% interest rates, and the U.S. capital markets were about to collapse. It was not because Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were poorly managed, but because liquidity in the financial markets had completely disappeared — they could not borrow money. What do you do with financial institutions that need tens of billions of dollars every day to keep operating? The Federal Reserve stepped in. You are an investment bank — I cannot give money directly to investment banks, but I can provide liquidity directly to banks. So these two companies applied to become bank holding companies in the morning and were approved in the afternoon. An hour later, the Fed gave them tens of billions of dollars.

Not long ago, I discussed with a friend — when Silicon Valley AI was at its hottest, my friend asked whether the U.S. international financial center might move from New York to Silicon Valley. I said that was unlikely to happen. What would need to move is not the exchanges — exchanges are just the top, most visible layer. The truly foundational, immovable thing is the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. Because the Fed's open market operations and its handling of the dollar all take place at the New York branch. Unless you also move the open market operations desk of the New York branch there, you would only have assets, not money.

(2) Financial institutions.

Financial institutions differ from central banks in that central banks issue base money, while banks create money through capital adequacy ratios — turning 1 dollar obtained from the central bank into 5 dollars, 8 dollars to spend. So financial institutions are creators of the money multiplier, and also creators of credit for various types of assets. By issuing various financial instruments and designing different credit structures, they improve capital efficiency and funding efficiency.

Why are U.S. Treasury bonds the most popular? Why is the most conservative underlying asset for any financial institution an investment in U.S. Treasury bonds? Because if you buy $100 of U.S. Treasury bonds, you can immediately pledge that $100 of U.S. Treasury bonds and get back at least $95. This is a process of credit creation. Financial institutions are creating money and assets. There are also money markets, capital markets, and derivatives markets — the five-layer structure as a whole constitutes the financial market system. What we want to say is that these five layers may undergo earth-shaking changes in the next decade. The CFTC Chairman's words refer to this financial market system.

II. Financial Market Structure

What does a mature and efficient financial market structure look like? It can basically be divided into four quadrants/directions:

First, a high-speed trading system. Trade matching must be completed efficiently and at high speed. Rapidly completed trades obviously require a very large capital pool and very deep liquidity; otherwise, it would be impossible to quickly execute trades according to traders' wishes.

Second, an efficient settlement network. The second criterion for evaluating whether a financial market is effective or ineffective, efficient or inefficient, is settlement speed. Settlement based on blockchain digital assets is "trading is settlement" — trading and settlement are simultaneous. Therefore, all digital asset exchanges can naturally trade 7×24 hours. Nasdaq's existing payment, clearing, and settlement system cannot achieve 7×24 hour trading, so the first step is the "5×23 hour trading" starting December 6 this year. To achieve 7×24 hour trading, the settlement currency must first be tokenized. Banks close at 5 PM and do not open on Sundays. You want 7×24 hours, but for nighttime trading, Sunday trading, and public holiday trading, banks will not provide fund transfer services to institutions. So an efficient settlement network obviously requires blockchain and requires tokenizing currency.

Third, reasonable credit creation. Either add leverage to funds or add leverage to assets, or provide higher efficiency in the use of funds and assets. For example, if you accept a certain type of fund/asset as margin or collateral, that is credit creation. Anyone who buys a financial asset hopes to be able to liquidate it at any time, and also hopes to use it as collateral, margin, or deposit to continue financing and leveraging. This is a reasonable credit creation system and a very important part of the financial market.

Fourth, a deep liquidity pool — there must be sufficient market breadth and depth. When you want to sell something, what you see is what you get — the exchange quote you see is the price at which you can actually execute. That is the best liquidity. If an asset appears to be worth $100 on the books, but trading it would incur a 3% loss, then it is actually only worth $97, not $100. But if liquidity is particularly good and market depth is particularly deep, perhaps you can execute at $100, or at $99.99.

These four aspects are the main four criteria for measuring whether a financial market is a good market and whether it is a mature market.

III. Blockchain and Distributed Ledger

Let us review blockchain. The reconstruction and innovation currently facing the financial market system and financial market structure are all based on blockchain's new accounting method. All tokenization can only be achieved on blockchain technology so far, and 7×24 hour trading can only achieve real-time settlement — trading is settlement — through a distributed ledger like blockchain.

Blockchain is the third innovation in accounting methods invented by human society. Over thousands of years of human civilization, accounting methods have undergone only three innovations to date:

The earliest accounting method appeared in 3500 BC, in present-day Iraq — the Sumer region of Mesopotamia, the cradle of human civilization. A clay tablet from 3500 years ago was unearthed there, and it turned out to be a ledger with very simple accounting of income and expenditure.

Around 1300 AD, in the Mediterranean region of Italy, the double-entry bookkeeping method that everyone is now familiar with appeared — recording not only income and expenditure, but also assets and liabilities.

Another 730-plus years later, it was not until 2009 that the third iteration of accounting methods emerged — the appearance of the Bitcoin blockchain, and distributed ledger began to emerge. From the perspective of accounting methods, you can understand that something that changes once in a millennium will indeed have an impact on the financial market system and financial market structure, as the CFTC Chairman said — the changes of the next decade will exceed those of the past 50 years.

IV. Digital Twins and Tokenization

With the support of blockchain technology, starting from fund tokenization in 2024, the financial market system has already begun its own innovation and reconstruction on both the funding side and the asset side.

First, the funding side.

On the funding side, everyone has already discussed central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and today's guests also discussed stablecoins and bank deposit tokenization.

Whether it is a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC), bank-issued tokenized deposits, or stablecoins issued by private institutions, they are all actually doing the same thing — tokenizing currency. So we can collectively call them "tokenization on the funding side."

Tokenization on the funding side actually appeared as early as 2014 — USDT emerged that year. Here, I want to specifically explain stablecoins. Functionally, a stablecoin is exactly the same as private digital cash. If you have 100 RMB in your pocket — when you withdraw 100 RMB in cash from the bank, that 100 RMB has actually left the bank account system. The same is true for stablecoins. When you mint 1 stablecoin, that 1 stablecoin exists in your phone wallet, just like it is in your trouser pocket — it has left the bank account system. This is the first characteristic.

The second characteristic is that holding cash usually bears no interest, and holding stablecoins usually bears no interest either.

The third characteristic is that cash can be used for peer-to-peer payments. You take cash to a store to buy a bottle of soy sauce, hand the money to the store, and the store hands you the goods — that is peer-to-peer payment, and it is also trading is settlement. There is no problem of swiping your card and the merchant only receiving the money the next day. You pay me now, and the money is in my hands now.

Isn't this Bitcoin? Isn't this a stablecoin? Functionally, a stablecoin is digital cash and has its unique value — just as we still need to have some cash and coins in our pockets now, stablecoins are cash. Bank deposits are not cash but bank money. Central bank money is central bank money, and bank money is bank money.

Second, the asset side.

With the support of blockchain technology, the asset side is also advancing tokenization. A Hong Kong Legislative Council member mentioned earlier that Hong Kong has completed bond tokenization totaling over HK$70 billion.

Bond tokenization, fund tokenization, and derivatives tokenization all already exist. The most important thing that has drawn enormous attention from domestic financial regulators regarding derivatives tokenization is that before Changxin Memory Technologies listed on the A-share market — before it was even listed — the overseas decentralized exchange Hyperliquid had already begun trading it. When Changxin Memory Technologies listed on the A-share market, its opening price turned out to be exactly the price at which Hyperliquid had been trading overseas. So when the A-share market opened, people found that the two prices were very close, and many people exclaimed, "It's over — the pricing power of Chinese assets has so easily shifted overseas." This put pressure on us — will you follow? Will you do tokenization? If you don't, Hyperliquid is doing it. If you sit idly by, that side will grow bigger and bigger, and the pricing power of financial assets will go there first, and then in turn affect domestic asset pricing. This puts enormous pressure on us, and at the same time, I estimate it is also a kind of motivation.

So, with the support of blockchain technology, tokenization on the funding side and tokenization on the asset side will ultimately form On-chain Finance — an on-chain financial market system — and be able to achieve a self-contained closed loop.

This is also why the CFTC Chairman said in his speech last night that under the catalysis of Tokenization, On-chain Finance, and 7×24 hour round-the-clock trading, the changes in the U.S. financial market system over the next decade will exceed those of the past 50 years.

V. Tokenization and 24/7 Trading

When an international financial center takes the lead globally in implementing financial asset tokenization, large-scale tokenization, and 24×7 round-the-clock trading, what does it mean for other global financial centers?

First, liquidity.

It means other international financial centers will face loss of liquidity. Whether it causes a 10% or 20% loss of your liquidity, your liquidity will be attracted to the financial center that trades 7×24 hours. As we know, liquidity mainly has two indicators: first, whether trading volume is large; second, whether trading depth is sufficient