The token economy is about to usher in its "dawn moment."

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"Tokens can only unleash their true value when they evolve from being tools for value storage and speculative trading in the virtual world to becoming tools that solve trust, efficiency, and cost problems in the real economy."

On September 11, at the 2025 Bund Conference, Ant Group CEO and Ant Digital Technologies Chairman Han Xinyi publicly discussed the topic of the token economy for the first time, opening by shifting the definition of "token" from the virtual world to real industries. He emphasized, "The future of the token economy must be deeply rooted in the real economy in order to truly unlock value."

"Currently, the global scale of native Web3 assets has exceeded $3.8 trillion, but the vast majority are still mainly used for speculative trading and value storage, lacking sufficient interaction with real-world industries."

Han Xinyi believes that if tokens are restricted solely to internal circulation within the virtual world, their value space will be very limited. As one of the token economy's explorers, Ant Group has been exploring in this area for many years, especially over the past year with RWA sandbox experiments. Ant has always anchored in real value, aiming to use technology to help the real economy achieve efficient circulation and value interconnection.

How far are we from the future of the token economy?

Basing his views on Ant’s exploratory practice and the real progress of the industry, Han Xinyi pointed out that we are now at the "dawn moment" of the token economy—like the first light of day, the sun has yet to fully rise above the sea, and solid exploration is still needed. His judgment is based on the maturity of multiple factors: technology, assets, and use cases.

On the technology front, as blockchain infrastructure continues to break through in terms of performance and scalability, the deep integration of AI and IoT is giving birth to more and more industry assets with digital genes suitable for tokenization, while privacy computing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs are driving the evolution of traditional trust models toward digital trust mechanisms.

On the application front, asset tokenization is expanding from the financial sector to wider real-world industries such as new energy and computing power, gradually shifting from serving on-chain investment to supporting real-world industry financing; meanwhile, token payments, driven by banks and payment institutions, are extending from crypto asset trading to consumer (C-end) and business (B-end) payment scenarios.

Han Xinyi believes that "asset tokenization" and "token payments" are key growth engines in the Web3 field. They are using "tokenization" as a bridge to drive deep integration of the crypto economy and the real economy, injecting new vitality into real-world payment settlements and value circulation. "Although they may appear parallel, they are actually converging and will in the future merge as a new type of infrastructure supporting efficient value circulation in the real economy."

Han Xinyi pointed out that in exploring the road of tokenization, the exploration of token economy value and risk prevention should be equally prioritized. He emphasized, "Compliance is the lifeline of innovation." Since the start of its exploration, Ant Group has clearly delineated boundaries: No issuing virtual coins, no participation in any kind of speculation; focusing on technical infrastructure, serving but not disrupting industries; striving to create new value, not just compete for the existing pie.

"Today, whether in understanding value or risk, we still have far to go and need ongoing, long-term exploration and research. Achieving stability and long-term progress is much more important than merely seeking speed or novelty," Han Xinyi said.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThere are risks in the market; investment needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the individual investment objectives, financial status, or requirements of any particular user. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment based on this article is at your own risk. ```