Author: momo, ChainCatcher
At the recently concluded Hong Kong Blockchain Week RWI Summit, Arion Ho, founder of the RWA infrastructure project ENI, alongside Hong Kong Legislative Council member Ng Kit-chung and Casper, CEO of the renowned Hong Kong incubator Web3Labs, jointly launched a $1 million global accelerator program. On the same occasion, ENI also signed a strategic partnership agreement with licensed financial group AD Financial for institutional-grade RWA and digital asset treasury solutions.
This is not an isolated debut. Just shortly before, ENI partnered with Republic Crypto, which is backed by institutions such as Hamilton Lane, Hashed, and Morgan Stanley, and has an ecosystem spanning over 2,500 companies. In less than a month—just a few weeks—ENI has achieved a “triple play” of political endorsement, collaboration with traditional financial institutions, and alignment with top-tier crypto capital.
But more noteworthy than these frequent actions is ENI’s RWA ambitions.
ENI is an enterprise-grade modular L1 designed for large-scale commercial scenarios, emphasizing infinite TPS processing capacity, and is currently expanding from the underlying network to an enterprise-grade BaaS platform.
Unlike traditional public chains that focus on asset issuance and trading, ENI emphasizes “how systems operate on-chain”—integrating enterprise assets, cash flows, and business processes onto the blockchain through a foundational settlement network (ENI), a payment and authorization layer (ENI PAY), and an AI Agent execution system, enabling continuous operation within a compliant framework.
On this basis, ENI also provided its assessment of the next phase of RWA: RWA 2.0 is no longer just about "tokenizing assets," but rather about AI Agent-driven business systems operating continuously on-chain. ENI aims to become the "chief architect" of Hong Kong 2.0.
What market opportunity did ENI see, and how did it aim to achieve this goal? During Hong Kong Blockchain Week, its founder Arion Ho was interviewed by ChainCatcher.
From "RWA Blockchain" to "Enterprise-grade BaaS Platform"
To understand the path of ENI, we must first look into the background of Arion Ho.
He is not a typical crypto entrepreneur. Before entering Web3, Arion spent many years working within the traditional financial system, holding positions at the Hong Kong Exchange, UBS, and Standard Chartered, accumulating over two decades of experience. He then moved into the regulated digital assets space, working at OSL and Zodia Markets, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, positioning himself at the intersection of traditional finance and cryptocurrency.
It was at this very point that he gradually recognized a structural contradiction that had been repeatedly overlooked: on one side, the stable, compliant, traditional financial system that underpins the real world; on the other, the Web3 world, characterized by rapid innovation but largely confined to the realm of “trading.”
The issue is not which side is more advanced, but that both are addressing entirely different problems.
In the context of Arion, the RWA 1.0 supported by most current blockchain infrastructure is essentially "tradable"—meaning assets can be transferred, priced, and circulated—but they are far from being "executable," lacking the ability to support complex business logic, long-term operations, and compliance systems. ENI’s defined RWA 2.0 aims precisely to address the latter.
For institutions, what truly matters is never whether something “can be put on-chain,” but whether the system can operate stably for years or even decades, who controls the ledger, who sets the rules, and who is accountable when issues arise. These questions have hardly been directly addressed within existing mainstream public blockchain systems.
Neither Ethereum nor Solana was designed to serve enterprise-level complex scenarios: privacy and performance are difficult to balance, compliance and control cannot be embedded natively, and institutions find it hard to migrate smoothly while preserving their existing governance structures.
This led Arion to a relatively counterintuitive conclusion: “The entities that truly need blockchain are not crypto-native projects, but rather those with real assets, stable cash flows, and mature business systems—publicly traded companies, asset management institutions, and cross-border enterprises.” What they need is not merely a “blockchain entry ticket,” but a commercial system designed for long-term operation.
From this perspective, the market opportunity is beginning to become clear. Market data shows that the global enterprise blockchain market size was approximately $57.7 billion in 2025 and is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion by 2030. The next five years are widely regarded as the golden growth period for this sector—a still-early-stage, trillion-dollar blue ocean market with enormous potential.
ENI originally entered the market as an "RWA blockchain." However, as the product evolved and the team established deeper integrations with an increasing number of traditional institutions, they realized that providing just a blockchain was far from sufficient.
During the recently concluded Web3 Festival, ENI underwent a pivotal self-redefinition, shifting from an "enterprise-grade RWA blockchain" to an "enterprise-grade Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform."
Behind this change is a renewed understanding of its role. Arion explained that the name ENI derives from ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose computer, symbolizing the transition of computing from theory to infrastructure.
In his view, today’s blockchain is at a similar inflection point. ENI aims not to build another “faster chain,” but to provide a comprehensive system of capabilities that enable enterprises to truly run their businesses on-chain.
How to build this "bridge" between Web2 and Web3?
The term "bridge" is a keyword mentioned by nearly all RWA projects, and ENI is no exception; however, in Arion's view, in enterprise-level complex scenarios, a "bridge" cannot merely be a technical module—it must be an entire systems engineering solution.
With the introduction of AI agents, the complexity of problems continues to rise. Arion noted that while past blockchains primarily served human transactions, future systems may involve humans defining rules and machines executing trades. Under this structure, the chain must not only handle assets but also host automated business logic—everything from order generation and fund allocation to settlement and auditing, all performed by AI.
This means that a single "chain" is no longer sufficient. ENI's solution is centered around this shift.
From an architectural perspective, ENI does not remain confined to the single-layer design of traditional public blockchains, but instead builds a layered system structure that breaks down "execution" into three key stages: execution, payment, and settlement.
At the top level is the AI Agent execution layer. At this level, humans only need to define rules and strategies; the AI automatically handles trading, calls, and business processes. ENI has built-in support for Agents at the底层, enabling them to directly access on-chain resources rather than being limited to off-chain tools.
The middleware layer is the ENI PAY payment and authorization layer. ENI PAY is the latest core product incubated by the ENI ecosystem and serves as the official payment gateway connecting on-chain and off-chain worlds. ENI provides the underlying blockchain and settlement capabilities, while ENI PAY delivers payment services, handling payment settlement and authorization functions for the real world. This payment layer has been a missing component in most existing public blockchain systems. In the past, assets could be transferred on-chain but struggled to enter real-world payment networks and could not support continuous commercial flows. ENI PAY was created precisely to bridge this gap, closing the “last mile” between transactions and settlement, and providing executable payment capabilities for AI agents and enterprise systems. In practical implementation, ENI PAY has already developed real-world interface capabilities: it supports multi-country QR code payments, integrates with Visa and Mastercard networks, and offers both virtual and physical card services. This means that on-chain assets are no longer merely “tradable”—they can now directly enter scenarios involving consumption, settlement, and cross-border circulation.
At the lowest level are the ENI settlement layer and AppChain architecture. Unlike public blockchains with a single shared ledger, ENI provides each institution with an independent ledger environment through AppChain, allowing them to customize rules, audit trails, and compliance modules, while enabling cross-chain settlement and unified security via the mainnet.
A direct consequence of this structure is that institutions no longer need to conform to public chain rules; instead, they can integrate with on-chain systems while preserving their own governance structures.
When comparing this entire system to mainstream public blockchains, a clear distinction emerges: public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana essentially provide a "ledger + execution environment," while ENI aims to deliver a complete system of "execution + payment + settlement," more closely resembling traditional financial infrastructure.
This difference is also beginning to manifest in actual collaborations.
Currently, ENI has partnered with traditional asset management firms, including JLL, to explore systematic on-chain operations for large-scale projects. In scenarios such as the Northern Metropolis, what is being tokenized is no longer a single asset, but an entire business system encompassing land, cash flow, financing structures, and operational rules.
This may also be why ENI repeatedly emphasizes the "system layer." The meaning of the "bridge" is no longer just connecting two ends, but enabling this entire system to operate continuously.
Anchor in Hong Kong, ENI's institutional partnership network accelerates expansion
If the first two parts answered "why do it" and "how to do it," then the series of actions since the mainnet launch suggest that ENI is now attempting to answer the third question: Has this system actually begun to function?
From on-chain ecosystem data, this system has begun to establish a preliminary scale of operation: the number of on-chain addresses has exceeded 3.6 million, with approximately 17,000 daily active addresses; TVL has reached over $82 million, and daily transaction volume remains stable at around 32,000 transactions.
However, compared to emphasizing short-term trading volume or on-chain activity, ENI tends to disclose "system-level metrics," including network stability, node performance, and enterprise adoption progress. Based on the information currently disclosed, its underlying network already has the capacity to handle tens of thousands of TPS and can support parallel deployment of AppChains, enabling the chain to gradually acquire the capability to support real-world business systems.
The true acceleration of ENI is evident on the institutional side. Over the past period, ENI’s partners have shown a clear trajectory of accelerating collaboration with traditional finance and real economy entities.
During a panel discussion at the recent Hong Kong Web3 Festival, ENI revealed several key partners, each fulfilling distinct but interconnected roles within the RWA ecosystem—from asset sourcing and structural design to compliance承接 and capital orchestration—gradually forming a complete value chain.
Capital and distribution channels represented by Republic Crypto. These institutions naturally connect Web3 projects with global capital, functioning more like a well-established network for organizing funds. As repeatedly mentioned in the roundtable discussion, RWA currently does not lack assets—the real bottleneck lies in how capital can be effectively organized and allocated to these assets. The significance of Republic lies in bridging on-chain and off-chain capital, ensuring assets are not just “issued,” but also “bought and liquid.”
Licensed financial institutions represented by Ed Financial. These partnerships address the most critical and practical barrier to RWA: trust and compliance. Compared to the technology itself, institutions are more concerned with whether the assets have a clear legal structure, whether on-chain representations can be mapped to real-world ownership rights, and whether the entire transaction process operates within a regulatory framework. In other words, these institutions are connecting the "on-chain system" to the "real-world legal system," laying the foundation for RWA to be accepted by mainstream finance.
Traditional asset managers and operators like JLL represent capabilities on both the asset and operations sides. This not only means that real-world assets can be brought on-chain, but more importantly, that they possess the full capability to manage asset selection, structural design, and ongoing cash flow administration. As mentioned in the roundtable, the key to RWA is not merely tokenizing assets, but ensuring that the underlying returns, distributions, and operational mechanisms can function sustainably. The participation of such institutions enables the on-chain ecosystem to extend beyond just the “issuance” side and begin moving toward the “operations” side.
Additionally, there are key but more “intermediate-layer” participants such as Ink Finance. Their role is to bridge traditional financial architectures with on-chain systems: determining which components are suitable for the blockchain and which should remain off-chain, and enabling a phased transition through layered structures (such as feeder funds). This layer allows RWA to scale gradually under real-world constraints, rather than requiring an immediate full on-chain transition.
During this acceleration, Hong Kong’s role has become especially critical. On one hand, the regulatory environment is rapidly becoming clearer. In February of this year, China’s eight ministries and commissions issued Document No. 42, establishing a compliance pathway for offshore RWA issuance of domestic assets centered on a filing system, making institutional entry expectations more transparent.
But for ENI, the deeper reason for choosing Hong Kong as a “beachhead” lies in the team itself. Founder Arion Ho has long been deeply rooted in Hong Kong’s financial system, accumulating cross-cycle experience across traditional investment banking, licensed trading platforms, and the digital assets market. This background enables him not only to understand the real needs of institutions but also to better grasp local regulatory frameworks and compliance boundaries.
To some extent, ENI is not "entering Hong Kong," but rather departing from Hong Kong.
On this basis, its target audience is also more clearly defined: entities with real assets and stable cash flow, including listed companies, asset management institutions, and enterprises with cross-border business needs.
To further accelerate this process, ENI is also introducing more structured incentive mechanisms on the ecosystem side.
The "Top 100 Institutional Node Program" essentially aims to onboard more participants with resources and operational capabilities to jointly maintain the network and expand application scenarios. These nodes are not merely validators but may also serve as entry points for business and organizers of the ecosystem. Complementing this is the "Top 100 Ecosystem Matrix" and the DAOaaS (DAO as a Service) framework, which seeks to modularize mechanisms such as organizational governance and incentive distribution, enabling enterprises to rapidly build on-chain collaborative structures tailored to their specific needs.
This means that ENI is not only building technical infrastructure but also attempting to provide a complete toolkit for “organization and operation.”
Technical Foundation: Why can ENI support "enterprise-grade systems"?
If institutional resources and compliance capabilities are ENI’s “front office,” then the underlying technical architecture is the “back office” that supports it all.
Unlike most public chains designed for trading scenarios, ENI was built from the ground up around "system operations," with its core capabilities summarized in three levels.
First, it features a layered architecture designed for enterprises. ENI adopts a structure of "Mainnet + Hub + AppChain," where the Mainnet handles final settlement and global consensus, the Hub chain manages cross-chain communication and coordination, and each AppChain provides an independent execution environment for individual organizations. This means enterprises no longer need to "share rules" on a unified ledger; instead, they can define their own business logic and operational methods on their respective chains, while enabling cross-system collaboration through the Hub, creating a structure that is "independent yet interconnected."
Secondly, the system design centers on control and compliance. For institutions, the primary concern with going on-chain is not technology, but ownership of control. ENI, through AppChain, returns governance over ledger rules, permission systems, and audit trails to the enterprise itself, enabling it to run on-chain operations in compliance with regulatory requirements without having to conform to the default openness and transparency of public blockchains.
Third, it supports parallelism in real-world business operations. Financial activities in the real world are never linear—they occur concurrently across multiple threads. ENI enables the system to simultaneously process large-scale transactions and complex business logic through its parallel execution architecture and horizontal scalability. The current network TPS has reached tens of thousands and supports further scaling; its significance lies not in being “faster,” but in its ability to sustain continuous business flows.
On this foundation, ENI has further enhanced the enterprise-grade security and collaboration capabilities essential for institutional systems. Its core smart contracts have been audited by CertiK, in conjunction with traditional audit firms such as HLB, ensuring that on-chain assets are properly mapped to real-world legal ownership rights. At the cross-chain level, an atomic communication mechanism guarantees consistency and security throughout multi-chain collaboration.
Overall, ENI is not optimizing the performance of a single chain, but building a sustainable operational system designed for long-term enterprise use.
When will the inflection point for enterprise-grade blockchain arrive?
Arion believes the true tipping point for enterprise blockchain will not come from a single technological breakthrough, but from a more practical condition: when institutions realize that this system is already more efficient, more secure, and more sustainable than their existing ones. This moment is gradually drawing nearer.
Looking back, ENI’s advantages can be summed up in four key words: compliance DNA, enterprise-grade architecture, Hong Kong hub, and forward-looking AI Agent strategy. Arion’s two decades of traditional finance experience enabled ENI to understand from the start that institutions don’t need a faster chain—they need a system built for long-term operation. The mainnet plus AppChain architecture addresses enterprises’ top concerns around control and privacy. Hong Kong, as a strategic gateway, offers a unique entry point connecting mainland assets, international capital, and global regulatory frameworks. And ENI’s early investment in AI Agent technology positions it at the starting line of the next era.
Whether ENI can realize its ambition to become the "chief architect" of RWA2.0 depends on one question: When enterprises are ready to go on-chain, will ENI be the most mature and reliable choice?