Jia Yueting ventures into Web3: Is issuing coins better than making cars?

Written by: Luke, Mars Finance

In the world of capital, some people are responsible for making money, some are responsible for cashing out, while Jia Yueting seems to only be responsible for providing topics. The promise of "returning to the country next week" may be far away, but he always manages to find a brand new, jaw-dropping narrative pivot between the jokes of Chinese netizens and the sad news from his U.S. stock investors.

As Faraday Future (FFAI) struggles on the life line of $1, and the whole world measures its car manufacturing achievements (with a total of 13 vehicles delivered by mid-2025) in a counting manner, CEO Jia once again meets expectations by throwing out a "new script" that feels both absurd and intriguing to Wall Street and the crypto circle: a full-scale entry into Web3.

In July 2025, an announcement linked Faraday Future with a global brokerage firm named HabitTrade, claiming to "accelerate entry into the Web3 financial ecosystem" and "unlock new possibilities in the capital markets." Once the news broke, the market instantly fell into a familiar confusion. Why would a company that struggles to even produce basic automobiles dive headfirst into the nebulous world of Web3, which is more elusive than the wheel itself? Is this yet another retelling of an "ecological counter-reaction" story on the brink of despair, or is it another capital magic trick prepared by Jia Yueting for us?

To understand this play, we cannot just look at what Faraday Future has said, but also at who it has invited to "set the stage and perform" together.

Carefully selected "financial engineers"

The other two main players in this collaboration, HabitTrade and RWA Group, are not to be underestimated; their backgrounds reveal Jia Yueting's true intentions.

HabitTrade, a legal entity registered in the Cayman Islands, superficially appears to be a mobile broker, but its inner layer has already opened up a secret channel for "big players" in the crypto world to deposit and withdraw funds using stablecoins (such as USDT). More importantly, it has successful case studies. Previously, it helped another Chinese concept stock company, U-Power, complete a "token-equity integration." This is equivalent to handing over a resume to Jia Yueting that states: I have ready-made instructions for those "out-of-the-ordinary" operations you desire.

Another partner, RWA Group, is the finishing touch. This company, headquartered in Hong Kong, was formerly known as "NFT China," and its core expertise lies in the tokenization of "Real World Assets (RWA)." In simple terms, its work is to act as a "digital asset architect," using legal and technical means to transform those non-standard, illiquid assets in the real world into digital tokens that can be freely traded on global blockchains.

When a car company is questioned for "plagiarizing" even new cars, and finds an offshore broker well-versed in the operations of crypto capital, along with a financial engineer skilled in asset "digitization," the outline of this grand drama becomes clear. What Jia Yueting wants may not be to undergo another painful round of financing within the framework of traditional finance. What he aims to do is bypass Wall Street's rules and directly sell a brand new story to an entirely new, wilder capital continent — the Web3 world.

From "PPT car manufacturing" to "code asset creation"

The core of this new story is the tokenization of RWA. The raw material of the story is the key number that many people overlooked at the press conference: 10,034 paid pre-orders.

What is the most valuable thing on Faraday Future's balance sheet currently? Is it the factory in Hanford, California, whose capacity is always in doubt? Clearly not. Is it the more than a dozen delivered FF 91s, each with astonishing losses? That's also far from enough.

What is most valuable is these freshly received, steaming hot future income certificates. In the traditional financial world, these orders are merely potential future income, making it difficult to convert them directly into cash today. But in the world of RWA, anything is possible.

Under the expertise of a professional company like RWA Group, Faraday Future can completely bundle these 10,034 pre-orders into an asset pool and then issue tokens representing its future revenue rights. These tokens can be sold to cryptocurrency investors worldwide through the HabitTrade platform, where investors can pay with their vast amounts of stablecoins.

The brilliance of this operation lies in the fact that it creates a seemingly perfect closed loop: using Faraday Future's "commitment to selling cars" to fund the "reality of manufacturing cars."

This is essentially a future income securitization based on blockchain technology, but it is more flexible, more global, and more appealing to crypto investors who adhere to the "high risk, high return" philosophy than traditional methods. This group of investors may have no interest in the automotive industry's price-to-earnings ratio, but they may have great enthusiasm for a disruptive narrative of "the ancestor of Meme stocks + Web3." This brings to mind the attempts of German industrial giant Siemens to issue digital bonds on the blockchain, but Jia Yueting's vision is clearly more radical—Siemens is financing real businesses, while Faraday Future seems to be financing "future businesses."

A narrative management of "dual-line operations"

Of course, if this is seen merely as a financing attempt, it underestimates Jia Yueting's status as a "narrative master." From the announcement on July 16 of securing $105 million in financing led by Middle Eastern investors, to the release of a new car on the 18th, and then quickly announcing an entry into Web3, this is a tightly linked series of moves, a clever "two-front battle," trying to please two completely different groups at the same time.

Internally, he spoke to those loyal retail shareholders who have been tormented by the decline in stock prices. New financing, new models, orders exceeding ten thousand, and the promised "exclusive benefits of the HabitTrade platform for shareholders" in the announcement (widely interpreted by the market as a potential "token airdrop") are all aimed at injecting a strong dose of confidence, intending to bring this core group of supporters closer together on the chariot of "resisting short sellers."

Outwardly, he extends an invitation to the Web3 world using a set of authentic crypto "lingo." The announcement is filled with terms like "stablecoin-based investments," "native digital asset liquidity," and "decentralized community." This is akin to saying: Hey, friends in the crypto world, I understand your language and am willing to play by your rules. Welcome to use your money to invest in a "Web3 concept car company" listed on Nasdaq.

The core of this strategy is to blame its deteriorating fundamentals (with an operating loss of up to $149.7 million in fiscal year 2024) and controversial product design on external evil forces such as "illegal short selling" and "market manipulation." By shaping this "us against them" antagonistic sentiment, Faraday Future has successfully established a psychological defense line in the minds of its supporters, making them more willing to believe that all of the company’s unconventional self-rescue actions are aimed at "unlocking the true value that has been underestimated."

Will the outcome be a miracle or a farce?

So, where will Jia Yueting's new Web3 script ultimately lead?

The most likely short-term outcome is a “Meme stock” style frenzy. Through new cars, new financing, Web3 narratives, and potential token airdrops, FFAI's stock price may surge under the influence of speculative sentiment, temporarily alleviating the delisting crisis and granting the company another valuable breather.

However, from a medium to long-term perspective, this path is filled with enormous uncertainties. The biggest risk comes from regulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is well known for its hawkish stance on digital assets. Once the RWA tokens issued by Faraday Future are determined to be "unregistered securities," the ensuing legal lawsuits and hefty fines could be devastating. At that point, this journey of redemption in Web3 could instantly turn into a fast track to bankruptcy.

Ultimately, all financial innovations and narrative constructions must return to the most fundamental essence of business. As Cathie Wood of Ark Invest emphasized while commenting on Tesla, the core of disruptive innovation lies in "execution." No matter how extravagant the story is told, or how cool the screen on the hood looks, if Faraday Future cannot stably and efficiently produce cars that satisfy consumers in its Hanford factory — and resolve the intellectual property concerns with "Mountain 9" — then all tokenization based on the "future" will be like water without a source and wood without roots.

Jia Yueting's Web3 experiment resembles a performance art piece in the modern capital market. It perfectly blends the resilience of a legendary entrepreneur, the struggles of a troubled company, the limitations of traditional finance, and the infinite possibilities of the crypto world.

Will this chariot driving towards Web3 take Jia Yueting and his followers to the promised land, or will it merely leave a brilliant yet fleeting trail of dust in the wasteland of the metaverse? Perhaps no one can provide an answer until the next batch of car delivery data is released. But one thing is certain: as long as Jia Yueting is still at the table, this grand drama will never lack an audience.