BitMart "Market Observation Bureau" is a new Chinese in-depth interview program launched by BitMart, inviting the most discerning and influential builders, investors, and researchers in the Web3 industry to discuss financial innovation, technological evolution, and long-term trends, leaving behind judgments and experiences that are truly valuable for the industry.

Guest of this episode: Henry Zhang, Founder and CEO of DigiFT.

Over 20 years of mainstream financial experience, leading the first online payment system for RMB in China, creating the world's first licensed non-custodial on-chain AMM trading platform.

Host: Yuanyuan, VP of Marketing at BitMart

In the first episode, we focused on a hot and trending concept for 2024-2025: RWA (Real World Assets on-chain).

To this end, we invited a guest with deep practical experience in both mainstream finance and Web3 finance: Henry Zhang, Founder and CEO of DigiFT.

As early as 2000, he participated in and led the first online payment system for RMB in China;
20 years later, he founded DigiFT, a company focused on bridging Web2 and Web3 using the latest Web3 technology, and entered the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regulatory sandbox, becoming the first DeFi project to obtain a MAS license;
Today, DigiFT has become the only on-chain AMM trading platform in the world that holds licenses from both Singapore and Hong Kong.

In this conversation, we attempted to answer several key questions:

• What is the essence of RWA?

• What value and lessons can traditional (mainstream) finance provide to Web3 finance?

• What does the BMRUSD stablecoin project, a collaboration between BitMart and DigiFT, primarily offer to users?

• Why is what DigiFT is doing called "connecting Web2 and Web3"?

• What advice does he have for young people who are hesitant about entering Web3?

Here is a summary of the core dialogue from this episode.

I. From China's first RMB online banking to the next infrastructure upgrade in Web3 finance

Henry has worked in mainstream finance for over 20 years, but what truly changed his long-term judgment was his personal experience 25 years ago of how the internet transformed the payment system.

In 2000, he was responsible for e-commerce at Citibank China, working on the first online payment system for RMB in China.

At that time, the internet was very primitive: computers were expensive, internet access was slow, users did not trust online payments, and regulations were far from complete. But a few years later, online banking and internet payments became essential infrastructure for daily life.

This experience made him realize for the first time how technology can reshape the underlying structure of finance.

Henry said, "The previous generation of technology was the internet, which brought finance online; this generation of technology is blockchain, which aims to bring finance on-chain."

He firmly believes that the value transfer capability of Web3 will bring about the next financial revolution.

II. Traditional (mainstream) financial experience helps Web3 finance avoid detours

In the context of Web3, people often refer to banks and investment banks as "TradFi," but Henry prefers to call it mainstream finance because it remains the absolute mainstay of global finance. The decades of experience in mainstream finance have not become outdated; rather, they represent the foundational capabilities that Web3 finance should absorb, mainly reflected in three points:

1) Systematic experience in risk management is the foundation for finance to "operate steadily and sustainably"

Mainstream finance is essentially a risk management industry. Every crisis and black swan event experienced over the past century has crystallized a mature methodology of "real monetary lessons": operational risk, credit risk, technological risk, fraud and internal controls, asset segregation, custody, and governance mechanisms. These experiences directly determine whether "money is safe."
If Web3 finance wants to enter the mainstream user world, this system cannot be bypassed.

2) The regulatory framework is part of financial infrastructure, not an external force

In mainstream finance, laws and licenses are not constraints but mechanisms for establishing market trust, defining the rights and responsibilities of participants, and ensuring the sustainable operation of transparency and accountability systems.

If Web3 finance aims for globalization and institutionalization, it cannot completely detach from the regulatory system but should, like DigiFT, redesign an on-chain model that is "regulatable, verifiable, and trustworthy" under a new technological framework.

3) The ability of mainstream finance to absorb technological evolution is key to whether Web3 can enter the "mainstream market"

Throughout the eras of communication, digitization, the internet, and mobile internet, the financial industry has always been among the first adopters of new technologies.
Now, in the context of the third generation of the internet, finance is entering the on-chain era. The technology adoption paths, migration strategies, and governance requirements of mainstream finance provide a reference roadmap for Web3 finance.

Henry summarizes it directly: "What mainstream finance leaves behind is not an old framework but proven wisdom.
If Web3 finance can absorb these, its development will be faster, more stable, and on a larger scale."

III. The essence of RWA: "Three Iterations" of Certificates

RWA can be easily made to sound abstract, but Henry uses a very simple analogy to explain that the essence of RWA is "certificates," which take different forms in different eras:

First generation: Paper certificates, including stocks, bonds, property certificates, etc., where a piece of paper represents ownership and rights to income.

Second generation: Centralized electronic records, which are the digital records in banks and brokerage systems, representing a centralized bookkeeping method.

Third generation: Also electronic records, but recorded on-chain. The essence remains "ownership + rights to income" as electronic records, but bookkeeping has transformed into: blockchain bookkeeping, real-time clearing and settlement, 24/7 operation, programmability, and composability.

Henry emphasizes: "RWA does not change the risk attributes of the underlying assets; it changes the efficiency of clearing and settlement, transparency, and composability. So it is not 'old wine in new bottles,' but 'old wine using more efficient circulation infrastructure.'"

This is one of the biggest misunderstandings in the industry today: some confuse "Web3 as an asset" with "Web3 as a method."

RWA does not magically transform assets but allows them to enter a more efficient liquidity system.

IV. What DigiFT is doing: On-chain transformation of Web2 finance × Mainstreaming of Web3 finance

Henry summarizes DigiFT with four points: first is Tokenization: standardizing the on-chain transformation of assets like government bonds, money market funds, and equity; second is Distribution: licensed distribution, distributing these assets to investors in compliance with regulatory requirements; third is Trading: on-chain trading liquidity, as DigiFT is the only institution globally approved to trade security tokens using the AMM mechanism; fourth is Use Cases: building composable finance, making RWA a part of financial Lego.

These four points correspond to the two major trends summarized by DigiFT in the "RWA 2025 Report": on-chain transformation of Web2 finance and mainstreaming of Web3 finance.
"We do not see Web2 and Web3 as oppositional. The true long-term trend must be the deep integration of both."

V. BitMart × DigiFT: Building "Trustworthy On-chain Returns" with RWA ------ The Logic of BMRUSD Collaboration

In the practical implementation of RWA, a common question is: how to connect the high efficiency and composability of on-chain with a larger user base? The BMRUSD stablecoin launched in collaboration between BitMart and DigiFT is a systematic exploration of this.

The underlying assets of BMRUSD come from DigiFT's regulated, transparent, and traceable RWA token combination ------ including high-grade money market funds, short-term bonds, and other asset classes that can generate stable returns.

These assets have already passed through the governance system of mainstream finance, possess highly transparent information disclosure, and have clear, verifiable on-chain paths. DigiFT is responsible for providing the on-chain transparent RWA asset infrastructure, while BitMart is responsible for transforming this underlying capability into product forms that ordinary users can directly use, trade, and allocate.

Henry's evaluation of this collaboration is very straightforward:

"We hope to allow users to achieve more efficient and verifiable returns without sacrificing safety and transparency."

BMRUSD also represents an important trend:

Centralized exchanges (CEX) are beginning to open up the "on-chain return track" through compliant RWA while maintaining a user-friendly experience. It allows users to: not need to understand the complex RWA structure, not need to manage on-chain wallets, and not need to bear opaque sources of returns. Instead, they can use BMRUSD like a stablecoin, enjoying returns supported by real, verifiable on-chain RWA. From an industrial perspective, such products are constructing a new paradigm: "on-chain real assets × exchange-level user scale × mainstream financial transparency." This is a key step for RWA to truly enter the public financial system.

VI. Regulatory Sandbox + Dual Licenses from Hong Kong: Trustworthy Innovation

DigiFT's journey is a typical case of how on-chain finance moves towards regulation and mainstream systems. They are currently the only institution globally that has obtained relevant licenses from both Singapore and Hong Kong and operates as a non-custodial + AMM on-chain trading entity.

They are the "first DeFi project to emerge from the regulatory sandbox in Singapore," and are further refining the compliance model for on-chain securities and RWA in Hong Kong.

Henry emphasizes: "The real challenge is maintaining a globally scarce model of 'licensed + non-custodial.' Technological innovation and regulatory safety must be balanced, and the regulatory sandbox is the most critical pathway."

Regulation is not a hindrance but a necessary condition for forming the industry's "trustworthy infrastructure."

VII. About the "RWA 2025 Report": The Two Most Important Things in the RWA Industry Over 25 Years

DigiFT's collaboration with Tiger Research to release the RWA industry research is not a marketing move but a sharing of research and provision of industry educational resources. The report mentions the top 10 events in the RWA annual landscape. However, Henry believes the two most important things are:

The first: Major mainstream financial institutions (UBS, BlackRock, Invesco, Apollo, etc.) officially tokenizing and putting real assets on-chain. The significance of this far exceeds the short-term market focus:

"This means that Web2 finance is systematically 'on-chaining,' and real assets are beginning to flow on-chain in the form of tokens."

Because it signifies that on-chain finance is for the first time taking on the asset volume of mainstream finance; financial institutions are no longer just "researching" but "issuing real products"; regulations, custody, and risk management in the RWA field have truly completed the first round of closed loops.

Henry believes this is the true "starting gun" for RWA in the next decade.

The second: The mainstreaming of Web3 native assets ------ the rise of BTC ETFs and Bitcoin Treasury. In contrast to the first point's direction of "Web2 → Web3," this point represents a flow of "Web3 → Web2."

Henry said: "BTC ETFs and treasury companies (DAT) essentially allow Web3 native assets to enter the mainstream financial system." Its milestone significance lies in the fact that Bitcoin, as the most native asset of Web3, is packaged into securities that can be invested in by mainstream finance; investors can participate in Web3 assets without holding on-chain private keys; Web3 finance is beginning to become a part of mainstream investment portfolios; this is the true "mainstreaming" of Web3 finance.

Henry believes this represents "another major artery of on-chain finance": "One is the on-chaining of mainstream assets, and the other is the entry of Web3 assets into mainstream finance. The convergence of these two lines is the true new generation of financial systems."

VIII. Advice for Young People: Interest + Trends = The Best Place to Bet

If a young person hesitates about whether to enter the Web3 industry, his advice is very concise: "Career choices should ideally meet two points: first, you really have an interest in it; second, it is an upward trend. Effort is important, but standing on a better track is even more important."

If you believe that "value will gradually go on-chain," then Web3 finance is in an early stage worth entering.

IX. One-Sentence Summary: Why Does the World "Need" RWA?

Finally, Henry summarized why the world needs "RWA" (why the world needs Web3 finance). He believes: "The financial industry needs to enter the next generation of infrastructure. The previous generation was the internet, which brought finance from offline to online; this generation is blockchain, which migrates finance from online to on-chain. RWA is a key link in this process. It shows what the next generation of mainstream finance will look like."

What DigiFT aims to do is to build a bridge connecting Web2, Web3, and mainstream finance with on-chain finance.

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Recording date of this episode: December 10, 2025. To listen to the full content, please search and follow "Market Observation Bureau" on Xiaoyuzhou, Apple Podcast, or Spotify.

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The views or opinions expressed in this program represent the personal stance of the guests and do not reflect the views of BitMart or its affiliates, nor should they be considered professional financial investment advice.
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