From HK to KL, two weeks. Three conferences. Zero days off.

I just came out of WikiExpo, Malaysian Blockchain Week and the Ultra Web3 Festival — back to back, non-stop panels, side conversations, hallway debates. On Day 2 of Ultra Web3, I sat on Panel 11: "Real-World Assets, Tokenization & On-Chain Capital Markets" moderated by Waheej Hussain of East Bridge Global, alongside John Chew (Toking Hoofborn), Ivan Cheng (ElevateFI), and Bobby Sim (Dato Durian).

Conferences are my market thermometer. You learn more in two weeks of real conversations than in six months of Twitter timelines. And here is the reading: the world is adopting, startups are building, regulators are not just watching — they're sitting at the table — and investors are actively hunting for opportunities. Bear market or not, it is a tremendous time to be building here.

Here's what I said on stage, question by question.

The moderator opened with a fair challenge: what's the first RWA product you've seen generate real cash flow — not just a tokenized wrapper people trade?

Real estate is my topic, so my answer came from what we actually operate. The properties we've been putting on-chain are Airbnbs with proven revenue — direct access to the booking calendar and every data point an investor needs to form a proper opinion about the asset. Our system is designed for investors looking for yield and convenience: easy exposure, easy purchase, easy resale. Not for people chasing the lifestyle experience.

Here's the reframe: the market assumes crypto = token = speculation, so everyone builds for trading. We believe real estate behavior will be different. It will be about investing — putting idle USDC to work. The stablecoins that went on-chain are not coming back to the banking system. They need real assets to work with. That's the solution we're bringing, and it's why we're focused on opening markets investors could never access before.

Exposure, global liquidity, instant settlement, collateralized borrowing — we haven't fully grasped the possibilities yet. We're still in the heavy-lifting phase: bringing assets on-chain. Everything else follows.

Liquidity. Always liquidity.

My answer: liquidity comes with adoption. More players on-chain, more assets on-chain, more trust in this new way to hold real estate. It won't happen overnight. But once early adopters experience what a traditionally illiquid asset can do on-chain, there is no going back. We are building experiences that were simply not imaginable before tokenization. I see it every day.

Users are just not mentally ready yet — the same way nobody imagined sending a message instantly across the globe until WhatsApp made it normal. Tokenization is doing the same thing for money and for assets.

That's why we put serious effort into user experience and interface. The real question I put back to the room: do you want to be part of the first wave, or do you want to arrive after institutional money has seized the obvious opportunities? Today's objections come from people discovering a new technology and being cautious. Fair. But mark my words — in the coming years, people will buy properties on-chain without questioning it.

Third question: what does institutional-grade due diligence on a tokenized asset require that most projects skip?

The uncomfortable truth: we are in an experimental phase. Startups are doing the hardest work — building the systems that put real-world assets on-chain in the first place. As long as assets are not natively on-chain, do not expect institutional-grade compliance. Compliance to what, exactly? We are still defining the rules that will point this industry in the right direction.

This is where the Clarity Act matters. The U.S. is establishing a framework that people have been working on for seven or eight years — a remarkable effort to reconcile new technology with traditional rules. And let's be honest: it is an oxymoron to force innovation into old regulation. These rules will end up serving the traditional system too, bringing more transparency and clarity to blockchain, AI, and computation — technologies moving so fast they've created a massive asymmetry of information.

You can't just stamp "institutional grade" on a system that's moving at the speed of light. What you can do is establish guidance — which is exactly what the Clarity Act brings — and get regulators at the table so they adapt to the technology. Because the technology will not adapt to the rules. We're talking about a new internet. An internet of value. Trillions of dollars already move across it without banks, without institutions, without anyone's permission. Work hand in hand with the innovators, and institutional grade will come. Impose old rules that no longer fit reality, and the value simply routes around you.

Does tokenizing an asset create real liquidity, or just the illusion of it until someone tries to exit?

Tokenizing a real-world asset gives that asset the best infrastructure ever built for liquidity. But this is day one. We are bringing assets on-chain; liquidity will follow, because liquidity always finds the path of least friction — more global, more reachable, always on.

Look at the numbers. Over $30 billion in real-world assets tokenized. Volumes reaching into the trillions. Wallet counts doubling month after month. Around 750,000 wallets hold tokenized Tesla exposure — tradable 24/7, from Lisbon or Taipei, settled instantly. All you need is a phone, a wallet, and some stablecoin.

Why would liquidity not come? Liquidity looks for the least resistance. It's like water. Liquidity is water, my friend.

It won't arrive overnight — it arrives over months and years, and the data is already showing massive adoption. Mark my words: within five years, there will be more liquidity on Hyperliquid and all the DEXs combined than on the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.

Last question: when does RWA tokenization become a meaningful share of traditional capital markets?

Just look at stablecoins — the dollar, on-chain. Over the last 12 months, raw stablecoin volume passed $30 trillion. Visa stands at around $16 trillion annually. Not a direct competitor comparison, but it tells you what is happening: the meaningful share is already being taken.

I don't think the two systems will fight to the death. They will coexist — but shares are moving. Stablecoins are taking market share from Swift; that's precisely why Swift is adopting blockchain. Visa is settling transactions in stablecoins on Solana and Base.

I told the room directly: anyone still sitting here with doubts about blockchain is blind, and lying to themselves. It is here, and it is growing fast. Adopt it, understand it — and if you don't fully grasp it yet, come ask me. Happy to help you see what is happening out there.

Two weeks of conferences confirmed what the data already says. Builders are shipping, regulators are engaging, capital is searching. The rails are being laid in front of everyone, in plain sight.

The assets are coming on-chain first. The liquidity is water — and it always finds its way.

If you're an operator looking to run your own tokenization marketplace, Propex is the tech.

— Yacine
The Nifty Founder