Author: Lulu
Real Data Assets (RDA) are an innovative asset form that is reshaping the path to the value of data elements. Proposed by the Shanghai Data Exchange in 2025, the RDA paradigm is not only an exploration of the transformation of data from resources to capital but also a practice of promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy under China's "Real Number Fusion" strategy. This article will delve into the unique value of RDA by examining its origins, core mechanisms, current development status, and related concept stocks, while also looking ahead to its future potential.
Origin of RDA: A New Paradigm for Data Valorization in China
In 2025, the Shanghai Data Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "SDE") first proposed the concept of RDA in "RDA: Exploration of Data Element Valorization," led by General Manager Tang Qifeng and Deputy Director of the Research Institute, Lü Zhengying. This paradigm responds to the national strategy of "new quality productivity" and the marketization of data elements, aiming to deeply integrate physical assets with operational data through technologies such as blockchain and the Internet of Things, forming a new type of asset unit that is "verifiable, tradable, and financeable." Unlike the global focus on the tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA), RDA emphasizes the verification of data authenticity and value enhancement, constructing a unique path of "Real Number Fusion."
SDE positions RDA as the core engine for data valorization, encapsulating the full lifecycle data of physical assets into standardized, tradable digital assets through blockchain technology. In April 2025, SDE officially released the RDA paradigm at the Hong Kong Web 3 Carnival, marking the transition of data from backend resources to frontend assets, with standardized paths for registration, valuation, trading, and financing. In July of the same year, SDE held a closed-door seminar titled "New Opportunities in Capital Markets: RDA," attracting financial institutions such as Guotai Junan Securities, Haitong Securities, and CITIC Construction Investment Securities to discuss the application prospects of RDA in capital markets, laying a solid foundation for subsequent project implementation.
Core Mechanism of RDA: From Data to "Golden Assets"
The core of RDA lies in utilizing technology to transform data into credible and tradable assets, with its operational mechanism encompassing three stages: asset preparation, asset issuance, and asset trading. In the asset preparation stage, the Data Assets Shell (DAS) encapsulates operational data, revenue data, and other information of physical assets into standardized digital assets, embedding ownership proof, trading agreements, and asset management models. Blockchain technology ensures data immutability, while the tripartite rights structure and judicial evidence channels further guarantee data authenticity. In the asset issuance stage, data service providers and financial institutions complete asset on-chain and financial target issuance under regulatory review, ensuring that data meets the requirements of "golden assets." In the asset trading stage, data assets circulate through domestic and foreign capital markets, creating value for enterprises.
RDA supports multiple financing channels, providing new funding sources for enterprises:
Credit Financing: SDE, in collaboration with financial institutions, launched "Data Easy Loan," with credit amounts exceeding 100 million yuan in 2024, providing low-cost financing support for enterprises.
Equity Financing: Using data assets as equity contributions to exchange for company shares, achieving capitalization operations.
Securitization: Issuing securities supported by future cash flows through data asset ABS (Asset-Backed Securities), transforming data into equity value.
Global Fundraising: Connecting with overseas capital markets to attract foreign investment to support the development of the domestic real economy.
The five major characteristics of RDA highlight its unique value: first, Real Number Fusion, where data is deeply bound to physical assets, forming a new type of asset; second, Real Transparency, where blockchain technology enables credible traceability of assets throughout their lifecycle; third, Credible Returns, where smart contracts link real operational returns, ensuring transparent distribution; fourth, Value Reconstruction, leveraging the low marginal cost and reusability of data to amplify asset value in conjunction with capital markets; fifth, Ecological Synergy, integrating data markets and capital markets to build an open-value ecosystem. These characteristics make RDA a bridge connecting the real economy and financial capital, providing enterprises with innovative financing paths.
Development of RDA: A Leap from Theory to Practice
Since its proposal in 2025, RDA has rapidly transitioned from theoretical concepts to practical applications, demonstrating strong development momentum. As a "testing ground" for the marketization of national data elements, Shanghai has become the core area for the implementation of RDA under policy support. SDE promotes the application of RDA in multiple fields through cross-industry cooperation and project pilots. Here are several representative projects:
Steel Trade RDA: Shanghai Steel Union (300226.SZ), a leader in global commodity data pricing rights with over 70% market share in steel data, issued the stablecoin "STEEL-CNY" for steel trade chains through the SDE platform. This project utilizes blockchain technology to encapsulate steel trading data, supporting trade settlement and accounts receivable splitting, reducing commission costs to 0.15%, with annual commission income potential exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Shipping Data RDA: COSCO Shipping Technology (002401.SZ), leveraging its monopoly in shipping data, has its "Ship Vision" platform covering over 5,000 ports. After RDA transformation, data valuation increased threefold, supporting the "Freight Treasure CNY" stablecoin for real-time RMB settlement of freight in Southeast Asia, with an expected annual trading scale of 50 billion yuan.
Data Asset ABS: On August 21, 2025, the first data asset-enabled ABS was successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. SDE provided full-chain support, including compliance review, a scientifically rigorous valuation system, and cross-market linkage mechanisms, ensuring seamless connection from project preparation to listing, marking a breakthrough application of RDA in financial markets.
On July 22, the unveiling ceremony of the "Equipment Operation and Intelligent Computing Data Center" jointly established by Hainan Huatie and the Shanghai Data Exchange was held in Shanghai, announcing the launch of the world's first equipment operation RDA project, with an expected issuance scale of 1 billion yuan, marking deep cooperation between the two parties in the circulation of data elements and equipment operation, exploring new paths for data-driven industrial upgrading.
The following is a comprehensive overview of RDA-related concept stocks, covering data element infrastructure and technical support, trading platforms and blockchain technology, scenario applications and asset tokenization, as well as high-elasticity potential targets:
Data Element Infrastructure and Technical Support:
Tuoer Si (300229.SZ): A leader in NLP technology, with over 60% market share in government and financial data governance. Its AI large model data orders increased by 180% year-on-year, providing high-quality data cleaning and labeling services for RDA.
Yihualu (300212.SZ): A data lake operator with a central enterprise background, storing over 100PB of government and medical data, with the first government data asset certificate landing in China, and an expected data asset registration scale exceeding 500 million yuan in 2025.
Sanwei Tiandi (301159.SZ): An SDE certified service provider, with AI-driven data auto-labeling efficiency improved by 80%, participating in the formulation of RDA data encapsulation standards, supporting cross-border data assetization pilots in the Yangtze River Delta.
Trading Platforms and Blockchain Technology:
Shanghai Steel Union (300226.SZ): A leader in global commodity data pricing rights, issuing the "STEEL-CNY" stablecoin, promoting RDA applications in commodity trading, with annual commission income potential exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Guangdian Yuntong (002152.SZ): The third-largest shareholder of the Guangzhou Data Exchange (holding 15%), with digital RMB hardware terminals covering over 2,000 banks, and over 20 tons of gold tokenization certificates, with new energy asset tokenization projects already implemented.
Sifang Jingchuang (300468.SZ): A blockchain cross-border payment technology provider, supporting RDA cross-border circulation, with transaction processing speeds reaching 100,000 TPS, providing technical support for the globalization of data assets.
Scenario Applications and Asset Tokenization:
COSCO Shipping Technology (002401.SZ): After RDA transformation, shipping data valuation increased threefold, with the "Freight Treasure CNY" stablecoin supporting cross-border real-time settlement, with an expected annual trading scale of 50 billion yuan.
GCL-Poly Energy (002015.SZ): A leader in photovoltaic and energy storage data assetization, with IDC and charging pile data on-chain, and a tokenization project for charging revenue rights already implemented, reducing financing costs by 2-3 percentage points.
Visual China (000681.SZ): Owner of the world's largest visual copyright library (270 million images), with NFT-based rights confirmation enhancing liquidity, and a copyright trading revenue-sharing model with a gross margin exceeding 70%, currently exploring a revenue-sharing mechanism for visual data RDA.
Century Hengtong (301428.SZ): Focused on data services, participating in RDA-related data assetization pilots, providing data processing and trading support.
High-Elasticity Potential Targets:
Yunsai Zhilian (600602.SH): Achieved RDA transformation of Shanghai state-owned computing power leasing, with blockchain technology enabling real-time monitoring of computing power resources, improving the efficiency of computing power asset on-chain by 50%, with a revaluation potential of 300%.
Zhongxin Saike (002912.SZ): Data collection coverage exceeding 80% (ETC and traffic flow), with outstanding RDA data source supply capability, and a potential increase of over 50% after technical breakthroughs above the annual line.
Shanghai Wumao (600822.SH): Its Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Exchange data products have been registered and listed on SDE, achieving four consecutive trading limits, but total revenue in 2024 is expected to be 4.517 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 42.59%, with data asset trading contributing less than 1%, and a dynamic price-to-earnings ratio as high as 126.57 times, far exceeding the industry average (19.30 times for trading companies and industrial product distributors), reflecting that the market's enthusiasm is more driven by expectations of policy dividends.
The enthusiasm of the capital market for RDA reflects its potential but is also accompanied by high valuation risks. For example, the high price-to-earnings ratio of Shanghai Wumao indicates that the market's pursuit of RDA is more based on policy dividends rather than fundamental support. The international exploration of RDA is also steadily advancing. SDE's international zone has become a key platform for cross-border data exchange, attracting over 30 international data vendors and listing nearly 200 data products. This zone has pioneered the "international data brokerage model," introducing resources such as esports data analysis from Stream Hatchet and global supply chain intelligence from Speeda, while also helping local enterprises comply with data export regulations. Through partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Neudata, and others, a solid structure of "technical interfaces + data vendor networks" has been formed, supporting seamless data transmission and helping RDA play a greater role in the global data assetization.
Future of RDA: Opportunities and Challenges Coexist
RDA, as an important engine for data valorization, provides new pathways for financing physical assets. However, its development still faces several challenges. Firstly, the trading scale of RDA is relatively small, and the business model has not yet fully matured, relying heavily on policy promotion and ecological collaboration. For example, the RDA business of Shanghai Wumao is constrained by external ecosystems, making it difficult to significantly increase revenue in the short term. Secondly, the mechanisms for data ownership confirmation, standardization, and pricing still need improvement, and cross-border circulation must balance domestic and international regulatory requirements. Additionally, the implementation of RDA projects requires cross-industry collaboration, involving coordination among various parties in technology, compliance, and market aspects, which increases implementation complexity.
Nevertheless, the future potential of RDA cannot be ignored. With the continuous improvement of the Real Number Fusion system, RDA is expected to achieve breakthroughs in the following directions:
Industry Expansion: Expanding from commodities and shipping to smart manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and other fields, covering more scenarios in the real economy.
Financial Innovation: Exploring more models such as data asset ABS and equity financing to unlock data value and broaden financing channels for enterprises.
International Development: Promoting the global circulation of RDA through connections with international financial markets, attracting more foreign investment support for domestic enterprises.
Conclusion
As an innovative practice of marketization of data elements in China, RDA is not only an exploration of the path to data valorization but also a profound response to the integration of the real economy and the digital economy. From the theoretical proposal in 2025 to the current project implementation, RDA transforms real data into "golden assets" through trusted technologies such as blockchain, providing new financing channels for enterprises. RDA concept stocks have become the focus of the capital market due to their layout in data sources, technical services, and trading platforms. Despite facing challenges such as a small trading scale and an immature business model, RDA is gradually releasing its potential under the support of policies and technological advancements. In the future, RDA is expected to become an important force in the data-driven economic transformation, contributing Chinese wisdom to the global wave of asset digitization and injecting strong momentum into the development of new quality productivity.
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