Solana leans into tokenization and payments at Hong Kong’s Accelerate APAC event

Tech Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Solana leans into tokenization and payments at Hong Kong’s Accelerate APAC event From ETFs to stablecoins to AI infrastructure, Solana’s pitch in Hong Kong was clear: less memecoin mania, more internet capital markets. By Shaurya Malwa | Edited by Nikhilesh De Feb 12, 2026, 10:41 a.m. Make us preferred on Google Solana Accelerate APAC in Hong Kong on Feb. 11, 2026. (Ali Ghorbani/Consensus) What to know : At Solana’s Accelerate APAC event in Hong Kong, builders and speakers framed the network as the execution layer for 24/7 “internet capital markets” in Asia, enabling trading, lending and settlement without traditional intermediaries. The conference struck a distinctly institutional tone, with panels on SOL ETFs, tokenized securities, stablecoin payment rails and regulated products featuring major asset managers and infrastructure firms such as Mirae Asset, ChinaAMC, CME Group, Fireblocks and Cumberland. Amid a market downturn, discussions focused less on hype and more on practical issues like compliance, custody, scalable stablecoin infrastructure, user-friendly wallets and tokenization systems robust enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny. Solana wants to position itself as the execution layer for “internet capital markets” in Asia, or venues where users can issue, trade, borrow, lend, and settle assets online, 24/7, without needing a traditional exchange, bank or clearing house. At least, that was the position attendees and panelists at Solana’s Accelerate APAC event in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Speakers struck a noticeably institutional tone, with panels and keynotes focused less on hype cycles and more on payments, tokenization and the plumbing needed to onboard traditional finance at the conference, held alongside CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy . The day’s agenda reflected that shift. Discussions ranged from SOL staking exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and digital asset trusts to stablecoin rails, tokenized securities and regulated exchange-traded products. Asset managers including Mirae Asset and ChinaAMC shared the stage with infrastructure players such as CME Group, Fireblocks and Cumberland, showing how closely the ecosystem is courting traditional financial firms. Payments also featured heavily. Multiple sessions centered on payment rails, compliant stablecoin infrastructure and cross-border use cases, with a clear emphasis on real-world adoption rather than speculative trading. Infrastructure and AI were another pillar. Talks from Alibaba Cloud and several crypto-native builders highlighted the growing overlap between blockchain settlement layers and AI-driven applications, reinforcing Solana’s long-standing pitch around speed and scalability. The overall mood in Hong Kong was simple and almost stubbornly consistent. Build. Not the “buidl” that shows up in bull markets as a vibe check, but the kind that shows up when prices are down 70% over a year , attention is scant and nobody’s pretending the last few months have been fun. But that wasn’t the frame the event operated in. Panels kept circling back to the same practical questions: How do stablecoins work at scale, how do you onboard institutions without breaking compliance and what metrics actually matter when you’re selling onchain rails to asset managers and banks. How do you make wallets feel less like science projects and how do you build tokenization infrastructure that survives a regulator’s first serious audit also took center stage If anything, the downturn seemed to sharpen the messaging, with less talk about narratives and more about settlement, custody, payments, identity and the boring operational details that decide whether “real adoption” is real or just a meme. A key vibe takeaway was not that Solana is immune to market cycles, but that the people building on it are trying to act like the cycle doesn’t get to decide what matters. Consensus Hong Kong 2026 More For You The Protocol: Robinhood unveils its layer-2 testnet By Margaux Nijkerk | Edited by Sheldon Reback 18 hours ago Also: Citadel Securities backs LayerZero chain, MegaETH mainnet debut and ENS scraps L2 plans What to know : Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: Robinhood starts testing its own blockchain as its push into crypto and tokenization deepens. Citadel Securities backs LayerZero as it unveils ‘Zero’ blockchain for global markets. MegaETH debuts mainnet as Ethereum scaling debate heats up. Ethereum's ENS identity system scraps planned rollup after Vitalik's warning about layer-2 networks. 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