Singapore and Hong Kong together manage roughly $10 trillion in discretionary wealth, while Asia accounts for 60% of the world’s population under the age of 30. This collision between massive capital and a digitally-native generation is forcing traditional fund managers to rethink distribution—or risk irrelevance.

Rehan Ahmed, CEO of Asian blockchain infrastructure provider Marketnode, outlined how this demographic shift is reshaping the adoption of digital asset technologies in Asian wealth management markets during a panel discussion at Sibos. Marketnode operates a DLT (distributed ledger technology) fund administration platform in Singapore and Hong Kong. Founded by the Singapore Exchange and state-backed investment company Temasek, with HSBC and Euroclear as significant investors, the company sits at the intersection of traditional finance and tokenization initiatives.

The younger demographic engages with financial products in fundamentally different ways than previous generations. They gravitate toward digital platforms and exchanges, and place less emphasis on privacy in favor of community-driven interactions. Ahmed cited the example of retail investors openly sharing their NFT portfolios during the recent digital collectibles boom. This comfort with public disclosure of holdings opens opportunities for social trading platforms and community-based fund distribution that traditional private banking models can’t match.

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Image Copyright: Swift / Sibos