Tokenizing Private Markets in Hong Kong | Florian M. Spiegl, EVIDENT

Florian Spiegel trained as a forester in the Austrian mountains before becoming the founder and CEO of EVIDENT, one of Hong Kong's most advanced tokenized private markets platforms. In this episode, he traces that path, from reading the Bitcoin whitepaper as a PhD student in Vienna to building a licensed platform that runs 100% of its volume on blockchain rails, and serving on the SFC's FinTech Advisory Group as Hong Kong shaped one of the world's most advanced digital asset frameworks.Beyond Cosmoverse is the Executive Dialogue Series by Cosmoverse, the institutional digital asset summit. Hosted by Roberto Cassa, Marketing Director at Cosmoverse, each episode brings together practitioners from finance, regulation, and digital asset infrastructure. Learn more at cosmoverse.org.Timestamps:(00:00) Tokenization is not a product(00:31) Introduction(02:12) From Austrian forester to capital markets(05:02) The shift to blockchain(06:43) Why Hong Kong(09:28) Digital assets vs tokenized securities(12:40) Why private markets lack a system of record(15:27) From a stock business to a flow business(19:29) The five-stage deal lifecycle, reimagined(23:07) Why EVIDENT doesn't talk about tokenization(24:04) Pre-IPO investing in the US and China(27:27) Regulatory clarity and the path to institutional adoption(28:29) Project Ensemble TX, EVIDENT alongside BlackRock and HSBC(31:57) What comes next: scale, identity, and AI agents(37:02) Closing