Tokenisation's next test: what Pakistan can learn from Asia's build-out
Tokenisation of real-world assets is moving from proof of concept to regulated product across Asia, and the details of how each jurisdiction is doing it matter more for Pakistan than the headline growth forecasts. Thailand's securities regulator said it is working with the central bank on digital securities, baht-backed stablecoins and new investment products, with a draft regulatory framework out for consultation. In Hong Kong, HSBC launched a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin, RedCoin, for public use on its PayMe network, regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. India's markets regulator is developing a framework for secondary-market trading in tokenised corporate bonds. None of these is a finished market; each is a sequenced build of legal recognition, product design and market participation.
The Thai case is the most instructive because the regulator has been explicit about what tokenisation is for. The deputy secretary-general of Thailand's SEC said blockchain technology and tokenisation could enable traditional financial assets, including corporate bonds and investment fund units, to be represented as digital tokens, and that fractional ownership could allow investors to buy smaller portions of securities. The same official said several initiatives remain subject to regulatory development and legislative approval before implementation, and that their potential benefits will depend on final rules and the readiness of market participants. That is a useful template for Pakistan: the technology is not the binding constraint; the rulebook and the market's operational readiness are.
Hong Kong shows a different route, through a bank-issued stablecoin rather than a securities framework. HSBC's RedCoin is backed by Hong Kong dollars and regulated by the HKMA, and the bank said it would add investment, corporate and institutional use cases. Demand-side evidence cited by a payments firm suggests larger corporates are already testing stablecoins for settlement: in a survey of 265 senior payments, treasury and finance leaders at US-based enterprises with $100 million or more in annual revenue, 97% were using, testing or still evaluating stablecoins, and 69% were actively supporting them in real operations. Those figures describe US enterprises, not Pakistani ones, and should not be read across without local data.
For Pakistan, the most relevant comparison may be India, because it concerns tokenised corporate bonds and secondary trading rather than stablecoins. India's markets regulator is developing a framework for secondary-market trading in tokenised corporate bonds and graded compliance for brokers, according to its chairman. Pakistan's corporate bond market is thin, so a tokenised bond venue would not by itself create liquidity; the open question is whether tokenisation could widen distribution to smaller investors, as the Thai regulator suggests fractional ownership might, or whether it mainly changes the settlement and record-keeping layer.
The institutional demand picture is mixed. A British asset manager added a tokenised share class to a sterling liquidity fund on a public blockchain, using a structure that preserves the underlying fund's existing arrangements, and its chief executive said tokenised funds can increase efficiency and ultimately lead to improved client outcomes. A Morgan Stanley report projected that tokenised real-world assets could grow from around $40 billion currently to approximately $2.3 trillion by 2030, driven by collateral movement, tokenised money market funds and easier access to global securities. The same report cautioned that benefits would not be uniform and that expectations of significantly improved liquidity in private markets were overstated. That caution is the part Pakistani policymakers should keep in view.
What is known is that several Asian jurisdictions have moved from research to regulated pilots, and that the products attracting institutional money are money market funds, short-duration instruments and tokenised equities. What is not known is whether any of these models produces durable liquidity in smaller markets, how cross-border recognition would work for Pakistani issuers, or what the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan will require before permitting tokenised securities or stablecoins. The material does not contain a Pakistani regulatory position, so any claim about one would be speculation.
The risks are also becoming clearer. A Morgan Stanley report said tokenisation could threaten 25-30 per cent of wealth management revenue, which comes from net interest income, though lending against a broader set of assets could offset some of that pressure. Separately, 22 companies, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's, objected to tokenised versions of their shares on a venue testing a US regulatory framework, which suggests that issuer consent and legal recognition of tokenised ownership remain unresolved questions rather than settled ones. Pakistan would face the same questions in its own law.
What to watch next: whether Thailand's draft framework reaches legislative approval and what conditions it attaches to fractional ownership; whether India's secondary trading framework for tokenised corporate bonds is finalised and how brokers are graded; whether Hong Kong's bank-issued stablecoin expands beyond retail transfer into corporate settlement; and whether Pakistan's regulators publish any position on tokenised securities or stablecoins. The near-term signal for Pakistan is not a product launch but a rulebook: legal recognition of digital records, rules on custody and issuer consent, and a decision on whether tokenised instruments can be distributed to retail investors. Until those exist, the comparison with Thailand, Hong Kong and India is a map of choices, not a forecast.
