As China's transportation industry has been running for years in the waves of intelligence and electrification, people once thought the industry's future was merely about smarter algorithm scheduling and cleaner energy use. However, in 2025, a cross-industry attempt by Cao Cao Mobility revealed another path to the market: bringing tangible assets such as fleets, battery swap stations, and carbon reduction onto the blockchain stage, transforming them into financial products that can be divided, traded, and circulated. More boldly, it also explores the implementation of stablecoin payments, attempting to build a new financial foundation for future transportation services. This is not only the first attempt in China's transportation industry but also marks a new stage in the integration of the real industry with digital finance.
This exploration is not only an innovation project within the enterprise but also a two-way engagement between industry and finance: transportation companies have found new paths to capitalization, while financial institutions capture new asset classes.
In the global transportation service industry, especially in emerging business forms represented by ride-hailing and autonomous driving technologies, development has always been accompanied by massive capital investment. From fleet formation and technology development to market expansion, high capital expenditure constitutes a significant characteristic of enterprise operations. Under traditional financial frameworks, companies primarily rely on equity financing and debt instruments to meet capital needs, which often leads to a series of issues such as dilution of shareholder equity, high financial leverage, and increased financing costs. Therefore, exploring innovative financial tools that can activate existing assets, optimize capital structures, and broaden financing channels becomes an intrinsic demand for industry development.
In this context, the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) as an emerging financial technology pathway has begun to enter the industry's vision. The core logic of RWA is to digitize illiquid tangible assets or future cash flows through blockchain technology, creating digital tokens that can circulate and trade globally. This process aims to integrate the financial principles of traditional asset securitization (ABS) with the efficiency advantages of distributed ledger technology, in order to achieve greater transparency, lower transaction friction, and a broader reach to investors.
However, from theoretical conception to commercial practice, the application of RWA in the specific field of transportation services faces complex real-world challenges. This article aims to provide an in-depth analysis of case studies from across the globe, particularly from pioneers in the Asian market represented by Cao Cao Mobility, systematically sorting out the application models and intrinsic logic of RWA in the transportation industry, and focusing on identifying the fundamental barriers it faces in terms of technological implementation, legal compliance, and market acceptance, in order to provide an objective analytical framework for understanding the development prospects of this emerging business.
In the summer of 2025, the intersection of the transportation industry and blockchain is quietly becoming a pivotal coordinate for industrial transformation.
The coupling of RWA with the transportation industry: asset basis and value fit
RWA is not suitable for all industries; its feasibility highly depends on the characteristics of the underlying assets. The transportation service industry is considered an ideal testing ground for RWA due to several key elements in its asset structure and operational model that are highly compatible with tokenization logic.
First, the standardization of assets and the predictability of cash flows are foundational prerequisites. The core operational unit of transportation platforms—vehicles—exhibits a high degree of homogeneity, and their acquisition costs, depreciation cycles, and insurance data are easily standardized and managed. More importantly, as operational scale expands and algorithms mature, particularly with the emergence of automated services such as Robotaxi (autonomous taxis), their operational data (like average daily order volume, mileage, income fluctuation range) statistically reveals strong patterns and predictability. This stable cash flow expectation generated by standardized assets provides solid data support for building asset pools, valuation, and subsequent financial product design.
Secondly, digital transformation has spawned new types of quantifiable assets. Beyond traditional tangible assets, the electrification and intelligence processes in the transportation industry have created two highly valuable categories of intangible assets. The first category is Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) assets, particularly the carbon reduction amounts generated by new energy fleets. In the global carbon neutrality and ESG investment wave, certified carbon credits have become a tradable financial commodity with independent value realization potential. The second category is the data assets themselves; the massive operational data aggregated by platforms, after undergoing strict privacy processing, is gradually being recognized by the market for its application value in urban planning, business intelligence, and other fields.
Finally, the heavy asset nature drives the ongoing pursuit of asset liquidity. The research and development of autonomous driving technology is a long-cycle, high-investment process that consumes a large amount of capital. RWA provides an innovative financing idea: by tokenizing the future revenue rights of specific business segments (such as a Robotaxi fleet in a single city), companies can achieve precise project financing without diluting the overall equity of the parent company. This method directly shares the risks and rewards of specific projects with investors, meeting the funding needs of projects while providing investors with a purer investment target.
From direct tokenization of assets to infrastructure construction
Globally, transportation companies are exploring RWA along different paths, forming two main models: one centered around assets and the other centered around payments.
Path One: Asset-Centric Deep Integration Model - The Cao Cao Mobility Case
Since Cao Cao Mobility launched its Robotaxi service in Suzhou and Hangzhou in February 2025, the operational data of this business has achieved a high degree of standardization and predictability. Each order and every kilometer of travel can be converted into credible data on the blockchain, forming a natural RWA target. More importantly, the Robotaxi business demonstrates stable revenue characteristics, earning it the reputation of 'digital gold'.
Cao Cao Mobility's layout in Hong Kong represents the most in-depth exploration of RWA within the industry. Its model does not remain at the conceptual level but attempts to directly transform two core asset types into financial products, constructing a complete closed loop from asset generation to capital markets.
The first category of assets pertains to future operating revenue rights. Its core design is to bundle the future cash flows of the Robotaxi business in a specific area and sell them to investors in tokenized form. The financial essence of this structure is to isolate risks and independently finance the high-investment, high-growth potential autonomous driving business segment. For investors, this means being able to bypass the interference from the parent company's other businesses and directly share in the dividends of the commercialization of autonomous driving technology. However, the ingenuity of this design also precisely constitutes its risks.
The primary challenge is the credibility of data related to the 'Oracle Problem'. The value foundation of RWA relies on the true and real-time mapping of on-chain tokens to off-chain asset states. The blockchain itself, as a closed system, cannot actively verify real-world data. Therefore, it must rely on middleware called 'oracles' to feed in the data. If the sensors or data transmission links used to collect mileage and order revenue are attacked or manipulated, then the RWA on the chain based on erroneous data will lose its value support. Ensuring the security and attack resistance of the oracle mechanism is the technical premise for the establishment of this model.
The second category of assets pertains to the tokenization of ESG assets (carbon credits). As of now, all customized vehicles from Cao Cao Mobility are pure electric cars, and its large new energy fleet has cumulatively reduced carbon emissions by over 3.1 million tons, equivalent to planting 170 million fir trees. This initiative aims to convert the environmental contributions of the new energy fleet into quantifiable economic benefits.
By tokenizing verified carbon credits, companies can trade them in green finance markets or use them as collateral for financing. This pathway aligns with the global capital market's ESG investment trend, but its challenges lie in valuation standards and market liquidity. The global carbon credit market is still fragmented, with huge price differences under different standards. Establishing a fair and transparent valuation system and ensuring that tokenized carbon credits can achieve sufficient liquidity in the secondary market, avoiding 'valuable but unsellable', is key to its success.
Infrastructure preparation centered on payments - The Grab case
Unlike the deep integration with Cao Cao Mobility, Southeast Asian giant Grab has taken a more circuitous approach, focusing on building future-oriented Web3 infrastructure rather than immediate asset tokenization. Grab's initiatives mainly include two aspects: first, integrating a Web3 wallet into its super app, allowing users to engage with NFTs and other digital collectibles for market education; second, opening cryptocurrency recharge channels in some markets to connect digital assets with everyday consumption scenarios.
Strictly speaking, Grab's current practices do not yet constitute RWA. However, its strategic intent is to build channels for 'on-ramp' and 'off-ramp'. By cultivating digital asset usage habits among hundreds of millions of users, Grab is laying the necessary market foundation for potential future RWA product issuance and circulation. When the market matures, Grab can quickly leverage its vast user network and payment system to promote RWA products based on its fleet or financial services.
However, the real bottleneck of this model lies in the lack of application scenarios and infrastructure, namely the 'last mile' problem from on-chain to off-chain. For drivers, after receiving USDC or similar stablecoins, they cannot directly use it for daily expenses; they need an efficient, low-cost 'off-ramp' channel to convert stablecoins into local fiat currency. This process currently relies on cryptocurrency exchanges, which is not only cumbersome but also involves transaction fees, network fees (Gas Fee), and potential compliance risks. For users, 'on-ramp' also presents barriers. Unless stablecoin payments can achieve seamless connections with bank accounts and widespread acceptance by offline merchants, like WeChat Pay/Alipay, it will always be limited to a niche community of cryptocurrency users and struggle to become a mainstream payment option.
This dilemma still applies to Cao Cao Mobility. Even if they may launch a 'Mobility Coin' or internal payment points in the future that align with corporate asset logic, aiming to build a more complete digital economy ecosystem. However, historically, countless points systems and internal tokens have failed to break through the 'self-entertainment' predicament. For a 'Mobility Coin' to succeed, it must establish a strong 'network effect', meaning it should not only be usable within Cao Cao Mobility but also accepted by a wide range of partners (such as hotels, restaurants, and retail). Without a strong commercial alliance as a support, users and drivers will lack the motivation to hold and use it, its application scenarios will be limited, and it may ultimately degenerate into a complex internal points system packaged with the concept of blockchain.
Common challenges restricting the scaling of RWA in the transportation industry
Although different enterprises have varied implementation paths, the entire industry faces a series of common systemic bottlenecks in pushing RWA from concept to scaled application.
Dual risks at the technical level
First is the conflict between data privacy and compliance. Transportation data has a high degree of personal sensitivity. For example, if the operational trajectory data of Robotaxi is misused, it may reveal users' behavioral patterns and life privacy. RWA requires verification of asset status, which naturally increases the risk of data exposure. How to meet the requirements for transparency and auditability while ensuring data is 'usable but invisible' using privacy computing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) is a legal compliance red line issue that all RWA projects must address.
Secondly, the inherent security risks of smart contracts. RWA transactions, settlements, and revenue distributions heavily rely on the automatic execution of smart contracts. However, the characteristic that 'code is law' leads to a very low tolerance for errors. Once a smart contract is deployed, it is difficult to fix any logical flaws, which could lead to devastating asset losses. Even projects that have undergone multiple rounds of auditing cannot completely eliminate potential technical risks. This requires project parties to continuously invest heavily in security audits.
Lack of financial infrastructure
The healthy development of RWA cannot be separated from the support of accompanying financial infrastructure, and there are still significant shortcomings in this area. The traditional asset securitization (ABS) field has a mature system of rating agencies, auditing firms, and underwriters, providing guarantees for asset pricing and risk disclosure.
In contrast, the RWA field still lacks recognized third-party valuation standards and ongoing off-chain asset auditing processes. Investors find it difficult to accurately assess the true risks and fair values of RWA products, which greatly suppresses institutional funding willingness.
Furthermore, stablecoins, as the main settlement tool in the RWA ecosystem, also face the 'last mile' challenge. For end-users such as drivers, if the process of converting stablecoins into local fiat currency is cumbersome and costly, it will severely hinder the promotion of stablecoin payments, making it difficult to surpass existing mature electronic payment systems in terms of efficiency.
Certainty and Applicability of Regulatory Framework
The regulatory environment is a decisive factor in determining whether RWA can ultimately succeed. Taking Hong Kong as an example, although regulatory authorities have shown a positive stance by issuing policy declarations and establishing a VASP licensing system, there remains uncertainty at the execution level. The core issue lies in the legal nature of RWA tokens.
According to its structural design, an RWA token may be classified as 'securities' or 'collective investment schemes (CIS)' under the Securities and Futures Ordinance, or may fall into other regulatory categories. Different legal classifications correspond to entirely different requirements for issuance, marketing, and investor access. This 'case-by-case' regulatory status increases compliance costs and time uncertainty for projects and is an inevitable stage that the RWA market will go through in its early development.
And now, we are still in this stage. There are still many diverse RWA projects in the market; how to gain the trust of investors and make the market feel secure should be an eternal proposition for all industries or enterprises initiating RWA to ponder together.
The industry value and prospects of RWA tokenization
However, Cao Cao Mobility's exploration of RWA tokenization still demonstrates four major possibilities for value reconstruction within the industry.
First is the breakthrough in financing channels. Traditional credit relies on collateral, while RWA transforms 'light assets' such as accounts receivable and intellectual property into tradable digital certificates through blockchain, providing new financing pathways for technology companies and green industries with future revenue-type assets.
Second is the revolution of asset liquidity. Real estate, equipment, and other 'sleeping assets' can be traded globally 24/7 after tokenization, allowing small and medium enterprises to participate in high-end asset allocation through fragmented investments.
Thirdly, cost structure optimization. Smart contracts automatically execute terms for dividends, buybacks, and other clauses, eliminating intermediary steps. Estimates suggest that RWA transaction costs are 30%-50% lower than traditional finance, significantly improving efficiency.
Fourth, the realization of inclusive finance. The starting investment amount for tokenized assets has decreased from millions to hundreds, allowing ordinary investors to indirectly hold 'green equity' in Cao Cao Mobility's new energy fleet and share in industry dividends.
Looking ahead, the application prospects of RWA in the transportation industry are broad. With the maturation and popularization of autonomous driving technology, the standardization of transportation services will further increase, making it more suitable for asset tokenization through RWA. A new model of 'mobility as an asset' may emerge in the future, where users can not only enjoy transportation services through the platform but also share in the industry development dividends by investing in tokenized products of platform assets.
As previously mentioned, achieving a balance between 'maximizing data value' and 'protecting user privacy', and clarifying the boundaries of data ownership and usage rights will be crucial in determining whether this model can be widely accepted by society and develop healthily in the long term.
Where will this experiment lead?
Cao Cao Mobility's cooperation with Shengli Securities provides a clear visual case for the application of RWA in the real economy. With the clarification of Hong Kong stablecoin and RWA regulatory policies, Chinese enterprises are exploring innovations that merge digital financial tools with physical business.
The capital market has responded positively to this cooperation. The stock price of Cao Cao Mobility rose more than 20% within a day of the announcement of the partnership, peaking at HKD 61.5 in the afternoon, which is an increase of 46.6% from the issuance price. This reflects the market's strong expectation that RWA tokenization will bring value reconstruction to Cao Cao Mobility.
From a more macro perspective, Cao Cao Mobility's exploration provides important reference for the entire transportation industry. Through tokenization, enterprises can open up innovative financing channels, reduce financing costs, and use the transparency and traceability of blockchain technology to clearly demonstrate their robust operational fundamentals and high-quality asset portfolios to global investors.
A new vision for the future of the transportation industry has been opened: vehicles are not just carriers of people but containers of financial assets; transportation payments are not just transactions but rehearsals of financial infrastructure. With the clarification of stablecoin and RWA regulatory policies in Hong Kong, Chinese enterprises are exploring innovations that merge digital financial tools with physical business. This not only provides a demonstration for the digitization of tangible assets but also transitions the development of the RWA industry from 'conceptual enthusiasm' to 'practical scenarios'.
In the future, as Robotaxi moves into scaled operations, its service capabilities are gradually transforming into tradable digital assets, accelerating the arrival of a new era of 'mobility as an asset'.
Author: Zhao Qirui, Liang Yu
Editor: Zhao Yidan
About the [RWA Research Institute]
The RWA Research Institute was jointly initiated by several senior financiers, Web3 practitioners, industry innovators, and technical experts, and officially launched in Hong Kong on June 25, 2024 (full name: RWA Research Institute, abbreviated as RWARI).
As one of the earliest established professional RWA research institutions internationally, the RWA Research Institute focuses on the field of real-world assets (RWA) and is committed to promoting the integration of traditional financial assets with blockchain technology. Through in-depth research and practice, the institute provides innovative solutions for investors and enterprises, facilitating the digitization and tokenization of physical assets and bridging traditional finance with digital assets.
The core mission of the RWA Research Institute is to combine policy research, standard formulation, and ecological co-construction to assist enterprises in achieving asset digital transformation, providing technical support and strategic collaboration for global compliance development. In the future, the institute will continue to deepen the integration of digital technology with the real economy, collaborate with international institutions to hold global industry summits, explore multi-field application scenarios, and inject new momentum into high-quality global development.
In May 2025, the RWA Research Institute, in conjunction with authoritative institutions such as Baidu Search and China Electric Digital Scene Technology Research Institute, initiated the establishment of the 'China RWA Industry Think Tank', focusing on the global compliance development in the field of asset digitization. The think tank empowers the real economy through three core directions: first, leading the compilation of international cooperation standards such as (RWA project evaluation standards); second, building a digital service chain of 'asset on-chain - cross-border circulation - global trading', integrating blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies; third, constructing a cross-border compliance channel centered around Hong Kong and Shenzhen to promote innovations in green finance and cross-border investment and financing. Meanwhile, the think tank strengthens technological autonomy and data security through the 'dual-chain integration framework' (national-level alliance chain and cross-chain protocol coordination mechanism), deepening cross-border cooperation and compliance governance.
