China’s RMB 41B Market and the IP-RWA Paradox – by Jili Chung

Governmental Support for IP Financing and Securitization
In a recent move, seven Chinese government departments jointly released the Opinions on Further Optimizing the Business Environment in the Intellectual Property Sector. This policy is designed to fast-track market reforms, strengthen the legal framework, and enhance how intellectual property (IP) is priced and traded within the Chinese market.

This policy-backing lays important groundwork for innovation in IP financing and securitization. According to IPFinance.cn, by the end of 2024, China had issued 206 IP securitization products, totaling RMB 41.319 billion (~USD 5.9 billion).

However, most of these follow the traditional IP-ABS (Asset-Backed Securities) model, with only a few experimental uses of blockchain. As a result, the widespread adoption of IP-RWA (Real World Assets) remains limited.

The Challenges for IP-RWA Adoption

While IP securitization and IP-RWA are fundamentally similar, RWA offers notable benefits like reduced costs and better transparency. This could open the door to securitizing complex asset types that current models struggle with.

That’s why major Wall Street players like Goldman Sachs are eyeing RWA as a major fintech breakthrough.
But even with China’s impressive RMB 41 billion (~USD 5.9 billion) IP securitization market, full-scale IP-RWA uptake is still lagging.

Here are three main challenges in China:

• Limited Financial Valuation Capabilities – IP is hard to value consistently due to the lack of standardized and specialized financial evaluation systems in the country.
• Cross-Disciplinary Knowledge Gaps – Successfully integrating IP, finance, and blockchain requires a mix of skills. Right now, China still lacks experienced professionals who can bridge these fields.
• Limited Blockchain Consortium Adoption – Although some pilot projects have tested blockchain, public blockchain adoption remains too low to support large-scale, transparent IP-RWA issuance.

Accessibility and Solutions with Web3

While these hurdles seem significant, they’re not unfixable. Emerging fintech tools—especially those linked to Web3—offer promising paths forward.

RWA and Web3 complement each other. Web3’s decentralized nature allows participants to act as both issuers and investors, effectively breaking down the traditional divide between creators and consumers.

Sometimes, judging the commercial success of a movie isn’t something best left to bankers. It’s the audience that really knows. The global success of the animated film Nezha proves there’s real opportunity in IP-RWA.

Cultural IPs like Nezha, Journey to the West, and Shaolin are already well-known among global Chinese-speaking audiences and are ripe for financing. At the same time, many culturally rich, market-ready IPs in China are looking for ways to get the financial support they need to grow and go global.

Dr. Jili Chung, in his book Three Lenses on Going Global, emphasized that while supportive tech policies are vital, long-term success also depends on strong legal compliance and a solid business environment.
IP can be a great vehicle for global growth. Building globally compliant models not only protects these assets but also unlocks their full market potential.

Conclusion

China’s RMB 41 billion (~USD 5.9 billion) IP securitization market has made a solid start. But with global competition in RWA innovation intensifying, deeper integration across finance, law, tech, and industry is the only way traditional cultural IP can truly go global—and thrive on the world stage.

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