On September 9, Anna Liu, CEO of HashKey RWA, participated in a panel discussion on asset management and the ETF industry hosted by ETFGI, engaging with representatives from PwC, State Street, BSE Indices, and others on topics including asset management, ETFs, tokenization, and RWA development.
Anna stated that tokenized ETFs and virtual asset ETFs are two entirely different concepts. The underlying assets, fund structure, regulatory authorization, NAV, and custody arrangements of the former can remain consistent with traditional funds; the primary change is the transfer of ownership records onto the blockchain. She noted that for on-chain investors, this means they can allocate regulated traditional financial assets within familiar accounts; for traditional investors, the change lies more in the method of access than in the assets themselves.
However, Anna emphasized that simply providing new access channels is not enough to drive genuine capital migration. Longer trading hours, more efficient clearing, and richer use cases for assets are the areas worth focusing on in the next phase. She said, “What’s truly being addressed here is liquidity and capital efficiency—only then can new capital be attracted, rather than merely shifting the same funds between different channels.”
Regarding longer-term innovations, Anna believes that the revenue generated by AI could itself become an investable and distributable asset in the future. She says, “AI provides productive capacity, while blockchain ledgers handle the distribution of outputs.” For example, an AI software might generate a large volume of very small but continuous income streams—difficult to distribute economically and efficiently to a large number of investors under traditional financial infrastructure—whereas on-chain infrastructure can automate this process.
Anna said that what might truly be surprising in five years is not “machines owning assets,” but the emergence of the first “small-scale, continuously generated income stream that can be shared by tens of thousands of people.” “This isn’t a disruption of traditional finance, but an extension of financial infrastructure, making financial relationships that were previously impossible possible for the first time.”
ETFGI is a globally recognized independent research and advisory firm in the ETF and ETP industry, with institutions such as J.P. Morgan, Fidelity, and Nasdaq having participated in its industry events and insight summits.
