Jack Ma-backed Ant Group’s enterprise arm has reportedly connected over $8.4 billion worth of Chinese energy infrastructure to its blockchain platform, with experts saying early adoption will likely remain institutional rather than draw in retail investors.
Ant Digital Technologies has been monitoring power output and potential outages from wind turbines and solar panels across China, uploading real-time data to its AntChain blockchain platform, according to a Bloomberg report.
The fintech firm has already finished financing for three clean energy projects using tokenized assets, raising approximately 300 million yuan ($42 million) in total.
The company has reportedly been tracking 15 million new energy devices, including wind turbines and solar panels, with plans to potentially list tokens on offshore decentralized exchanges to create more liquidity, though such moves remain subject to regulatory approval.
Musheer Ahmed, Founder & MD of Finstep Asia, told Decrypt that he does not expect significant retail interest in energy infrastructure tokenization in the early stages.
“It tends to be more of an alternative investment, hence we will likely see more professional investors or institutional investors being the ones who show a key interest in these projects,” he said.
“What becomes vital is the use of IOT devices, which can relay the output and information of each device periodically,” Ahmed added.
That data could then be connected to the chain to provide information on how much energy is being generated, as well as a status update on the health of the assets/infrastructure itself, he added.
“Each token acts as the bearer of a pro-rata claim on the asset’s cash flows,” Rishabh Gupta, Director at TD Group, told Decrypt. “As electricity is sold and costs are settled, the net returns are distributed to token holders in line with their fractional stake.”
Gupta described how “each solar panel or turbine acts as a data node, producing meter readings that oracles relay on-chain.”
“A validator set permissioned or open verifies those readings before they are written to the blockchain,” he added. “Once recorded, the data is immutable and transparent, giving auditors, regulators, and investors a clear, tamper-proof view of production and payouts.”
Tokenization projects often face liquidity challenges in the secondary market, Ahmed said.
Still, beyond investment access, tokenization improves project efficiency through “better tracking of data” and enabling “smart contracts for execution of various investment management elements,” he added.