HashKey Group used the Web3 Festival in Hong Kong to argue that tokenization is becoming central to the next phase of Web3. The group also released its third research paper on how AI agents, finance, and asset issuance may evolve together.
Whitepaper focuses on the agent economy
On April 21, 2026, Dr. Xiao Feng, Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group, unveiled the latest paper in the Web3 Economy series: On-Chain Finance and Tokenization in the Era of the Agent Economy. The report examines how AI agents are moving into production, collaboration, and trading.
Moreover, the study maps how on-chain finance and asset infrastructure may adapt as the web3 economy expands. It outlines the logic for the next stage across production, value, institutions, and business operations.
Stablecoins and real-world assets gain ground
HashKey said its research over the past three years points to several trends. Stablecoins are increasingly serving as the cash settlement layer for on-chain finance. At the same time, real world assets are moving toward broader institutional use.
However, the report also says blockchain is evolving into an institutional tool for building new production relationships. That shift, it argues, is already visible in market structure and settlement design.
The whitepaper says traditional systems were built for low-frequency, high-value activity with heavy human involvement. Their core assumptions include physical accounts, manual audits, intermediary brokerage, and staged clearing.
As a result, those systems struggle when agents operate at scale. The report says the future will depend on high-frequency collaboration between humans and agents, and between agents themselves.
Why on-chain finance matters
The paper presents on chain finance as a practical answer to those limits. It argues that the value of blockchain is not only speed, but also its ability to serve agents as a new economic entity. This is where the full tokenization model becomes operational.
Moreover, the report highlights three advantages. First, granularity allows blockchain tokens to split assets, permissions, and revenue distribution into smaller units. Second, automation through smart contract automation can encode trading rules and profit-sharing logic. Third, a unified ledger reduces intermediary steps and lowers collaboration costs.
That said, the paper also links this shift to the rise of the distributed ledger. It says the structure allows accounting, settlement, and distribution to happen inside one system.
Dual-Token Architecture and identity
The report introduces a Dual-Token Architecture. It says AI tokens can serve as the minimum semantic unit for computing power consumption, while blockchain tokens become the minimum programmable unit for value flow. HashKey’s earlier Three-Token Model remains part of the framework.
In addition, the whitepaper says SBTs, or soulbound tokens, may play a bigger role in agent identity, permission management, and reputation building. Those functions are increasingly important as systems move toward automated participation.
The report also says future infrastructure must replace real-name accounts with cryptographic addresses that agents can easily access. It adds that the move from double-entry bookkeeping to distributed ledgers marks a deeper business change.
Tokenization and settlement design
One of the report’s central claims is that