HashKey Targets $215M Hong Kong IPO: A Landmark for Regulated Crypto Exchanges

Introduction

HashKey Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that could raise up to $215 million, positioning it to become the city’s first listed crypto exchange. The company aims to sell about 240.6 million shares at a price range of HK$5.95 to HK$6.95, implying a valuation of around HK$19 billion at the top end. Order books are open through Friday, with trading scheduled to begin on December 17, in a deal seen as a key test of investor appetite for regulated digital asset exchanges in Hong Kong’s evolving crypto market.

In its prospectus, HashKey highlights its role as a full-scale digital asset ecosystem, with businesses spanning crypto exchange services, institutional-grade custody, tokenization, staking infrastructure, and asset management. The firm claims more than 75% of Hong Kong’s onshore digital asset trading volume under the city’s virtual asset regime, launched in 2022, and manages billions in client assets via funds and structured products. Its revenue has surged from roughly HK$129 million in 2022 to about HK$721 million in 2024, reflecting rapid growth in crypto trading, on-chain services, and Web3 infrastructure demand.

Proceeds from the Hong Kong IPO will be funneled into product innovation, multi-chain custody upgrades, and scaling HashKey’s on-chain infrastructure and engineering teams. The company plans to expand regulated crypto derivatives and yield products, deepen liquidity across venues, and enhance custody capabilities to support more blockchains and tokens. It will also invest in a crypto‑as‑a‑service platform for institutions, further staking infrastructure, and more robust cloud, risk management, and compliance systems aligned with Hong Kong’s virtual asset rules—moves designed to capture rising institutional adoption and strengthen the city’s position against rival hubs like Singapore and Dubai.

Background

Hong Kong–based HashKey Group is preparing to raise up to US$215 million (HK$1.67 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in what is poised to be the city’s first listing of a regulated crypto exchange. The deal will see HashKey offer about 240.6 million shares in a price range of HK$5.95 to HK$6.95, implying a potential valuation of roughly HK$19 billion if priced at the top end, with trading expected to begin on December 17 under stock code 3887. This IPO is more than just a capital raise: it is effectively a market referendum on Hong Kong’s regulated virtual asset regime and the investability of compliant crypto infrastructure.

HashKey already operates what it and independent research describe as Hong Kong’s largest licensed digital asset exchange, capturing over 75% of onshore trading volume under the city’s virtual asset framework, which came into effect in 2022. The firm positions itself not simply as a centralized exchange (CEX), but as a multi-line digital asset infrastructure provider spanning trading, custody, on-chain services (staking, tokenization, and its own network, HashKey Chain), and asset management. According to its IPO filing and external reporting, HashKey oversees around HK$29 billion in staking assets and roughly HK$7.8 billion in client assets under management, even as it reports multi-year net losses as it scales its platform.

For DeFi and fintech practitioners, HashKey’s IPO offers a useful real-world case study of how regulated crypto exchanges, tokenization platforms, and custody providers are being packaged into a single listed vehicle—and how public equity markets are starting to price that risk/reward profile in Asia.

Hong Kong’s Regulated Crypto Experiment, in Public Markets

Hong Kong formally pivoted toward a “virtual asset hub” strategy in 2022, introducing a dedicated licensing regime under the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs). Under this framework, exchanges are required to meet stringent requirements around:

• Capital adequacy and risk management

• Segregation and safekeeping of client assets

• Robust custody standards

• Market surveillance and AML/CTF controls

• Retail investor protections, including suitability checks and product risk disclosures

As of late 2025, Hong Kong has licensed 11 exchanges under this framework, but the roster notably does not include global giants such as Binance or Coinbase. Instead, local and regional players like HashKey and OSL have become the flagship examples of the city’s regulated approach.

This policy push sits against a complex backdrop: mainland China continues to restrict crypto trading, while Hong Kong is being used as a controlled environment to attract compliant digital asset activity and capital. HashKey’s IPO, therefore, becomes a litmus test not only for the company itself but for Hong Kong’s entire virtual asset policy direction.

Inside HashKey’s Business: Exchange, Custody, On-Chain Services, and Asset Management

HashKey markets itself as a full-stack digital asset ecosystem, not just a trading venue. Broadly, its business lines can be grouped into three pillars:

1. Transaction Facilitation (the Exchange Core)

This pillar covers the conventional centralized-exchange stack and surrounding institutional services:

• Spot crypto trading and order-book infrastructure

• Fiat on/off-ramps between HKD and major cryptocurrencies

• Over-the-counter (OTC) trading for larger blocks

• Custody and safekeeping for institutional clients

• FX conversion and liquidity services

For a DeFi or fintech audience, this is essentially the “regulated access layer”—a compliant bridge between traditional capital and on-chain assets. HashKey’s large share of licensed onshore volume suggests that, in Hong Kong at least, regulation has concentrated liquidity rather than fragmented it.

2. On-Chain Services and Infrastructure

The second pillar focuses on infrastructure that lives closer to the protocol layer:

• Staking infrastructure for proof-of-stake networks, delivered as a service to institutions

• Tokenization of real-world and financial assets, part of the broader real world asset (RWA) tokenization trend

• HashKey Chain, the firm’s own network aimed at hosting compliant RWA projects, stablecoins, and decentralized applications (dApps)

Tokenization and staking are increasingly central to the thesis that crypto infrastructure can support institutional balance sheets and capital markets. Hong Kong regulators themselves have begun exploring tokenized securities, money market funds, and structured products, making platforms like HashKey natural beneficiaries of that trend.

3. Asset Management

The third pillar is asset management and investment products, including:

• Venture investments in Web3 and blockchain startups

• Secondary market products, such as actively managed crypto funds and structured products

• Participation in crypto-focused ETFs, such as Hong Kong’s virtual asset ETFs, where HashKey has acted as a key service provider alongside traditional managers like Bosera Asset Management

For institutional allocators, this creates an integrated stack: a single regulated group can trade, custody, stake, tokenize, and manage portfolios across multiple strategies, all under one compliance framework.

Rapid Revenue Growth, But Still Loss-Making

HashKey’s financials reflect the familiar high-growth, high-burn profile seen in many infrastructure-heavy fintech and exchange businesses:

• Revenue climbed from around HK$129 million in 2022 to HK$208 million in 2023, then surged to approximately HK$721 million in 2024, driven by higher trading volumes and expanding on-chain services.

• Over the past three and a half years, the group has accumulated around HK$2.9 billion in net losses, including roughly HK$1.19 billion in 2024 losses alone, as it invested heavily in technology, compliance, and marketing.

At the same time, reported trading volumes grew from roughly HK$4.2 billion in 2022 to about HK$638.4 billion in 2024—a more than 150x increase.

Despite the red ink, the IPO has attracted nine cornerstone investors, including UBS Asset Management and Fidelity, who collectively committed around US$75 million to the deal. For many institutional investors, the bet is that compliant infrastructure in a major financial centre will eventually achieve operating leverage and defensible margins as more capital rotates into onshore, regulated venues.

How HashKey Plans to Use the IPO Proceeds

According to the IPO prospectus and coverage from outlets like Cryptonews, HashKey expects net proceeds of roughly HK$1.43 billion if the deal prices at the top of the indicated range. The capital is earmarked for several key initiatives that align closely with current fintech and DeFi trends:

1. Product Expansion and Innovation

• Launching more regulated derivatives and yield products

• Broadening the menu of institutional-grade structured products and ETF-related offerings

• Enhancing tools for treasury, liquidity, and risk management for both corporate and institutional users

2. Multi-Chain Custody and Infrastructure Upgrades

• Expanding multi-chain custody to support more Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks

• Enhancing key management, segregation, and recovery procedures to meet stricter regulatory standards

• Upgrading matching engines, risk systems, and market surveillance to handle volume spikes without outages

3. On-Chain Innovation and “Crypto-as-a-Service”

• Building out “crypto-as-a-service” platforms that banks, brokers, and fintechs can plug into via APIs

• Investing further in staking infrastructure and RWA tokenization capabilities on HashKey Chain

• Supporting compliant stablecoin, RWA, and dApp ecosystems that can operate within Hong Kong’s regulatory perimeter

4. Talent, Research, and Compliance

• Hiring additional engineering and research talent across security, infrastructure, quant, and protocol teams

• Continuing to invest in risk management, internal controls, and compliance, aligned with SFC standards and AML/CTF rules

For market participants, this effectively means HashKey is using its Hong Kong IPO to double down on the infrastructure rails that connect traditional finance, fintechs, and on-chain liquidity—with a focus on regulated access, RWA tokenization, multi-chain custody, and staking yields.

Strategic Shareholders and the China–Hong Kong Dynamic

One of the more interesting elements of the HashKey story is its shareholder structure and capital provenance. As reported by BeInCrypto and others:

• Lu Weiding, chairman of Wanxiang Group—one of China’s largest auto parts manufacturers—holds roughly 43.2% of HashKey.

• Founder Xiao Feng and related entities hold about 16.3%, giving Wanxiang-linked interests over 60% of voting power post-IPO.

• Only about 8.7% of shares are expected to float publicly at listing.

Given that mainland China bans retail crypto trading, Hong Kong effectively acts as a regulated gateway for Chinese industrial and financial capital to gain exposure to the digital asset sector. HashKey’s IPO, therefore, is not only about regulated crypto exchange in Hong Kong, but also about how Chinese capital accesses the asset class via an SFC-supervised venue.

For DeFi and fintech builders, this dynamic matters because it signals where capital, liquidity, and institutional demand may cluster in the region—and under what regulatory conditions.

Why This Matters for DeFi and Fintech Practitioners

While HashKey is firmly in the CeFi / regulated infrastructure camp, its trajectory has clear implications for DeFi and fintech:

• Regulated On/Off Ramps

As institutional allocators increasingly require onshore, licensed access points, exchanges like HashKey become critical endpoints feeding liquidity into and out of DeFi protocols and tokenized assets.

• RWA Tokenization and Institutional Credit

With a focus on tokenization and HashKey Chain, the group is positioning itself to be a launchpad for real world asset (RWA) projects, including tokenized securities, funds, and potentially credit products. This intersects directly with DeFi protocols that want regulated RWA issuers and custodians as counterparties.

• Staking and Yield Infrastructure

HashKey’s staking platform effectively competes with, and sometimes complements, liquid staking protocols and institutional staking providers. For treasuries and funds, regulated staking infrastructure with strong custody and compliance can be an attractive alternative or complement to fully on-chain solutions.

• Crypto-as-a-Service for Banks and Fintechs

 If HashKey succeeds in offering crypto- and tokenization-as-a-service, banks, neobanks, and fintech apps in the region may prefer integrated, licensed providers instead of assembling their own custody, trading, staking, and tokenization stacks.

In all of these areas, the key question is how much value public markets assign to regulated crypto infrastructure in a major hub like Hong Kong—and whether that valuation supports continued investment in building compliant bridges between TradFi and DeFi.

Risks, Open Questions, and What to Watch Next

Despite its strong positioning, there are real risks and unresolved questions that investors and builders should track:

• Profitability vs. Growth

HashKey is still loss-making, with heavy spend on technology and compliance. The path to sustainable margins in a regulated exchange and infrastructure model is not guaranteed, especially if fee compression accelerates.

• Regulatory and Jurisdictional Competition

Hong Kong is competing with Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and others to be Asia’s digital asset hub. Regulatory shifts or new policy incentives elsewhere could divert flows and listings.

• Concentration and Counterparty Risk

With >75% share of onshore volume, HashKey is systemically important in Hong Kong’s virtual asset ecosystem. Outages, security incidents, or compliance failures would have outsized impact.

• Market Volatility and Sentiment Cycles

The IPO lands in a period when Bitcoin has recently pulled back from all-time highs, and sentiment can shift quickly. This affects not just HashKey’s valuation, but also volumes, AUM, and appetite for tokenized products.

Even with these risks, HashKey’s IPO is a milestone for regulated crypto exchanges in Hong Kong and a signal that public equity markets are ready to price digital asset infrastructure as a core fintech vertical, not just a speculative side bet.

Key Takeaways

• HashKey’s Hong Kong IPO, targeting US $215M, is set to make it the city’s first listed crypto exchange and a flagship for the Hong Kong virtual asset regime.

• The business spans regulated crypto exchange, multi-chain custody, staking and on-chain services, tokenization (RWA), and asset management, making it a comprehensive digital asset infrastructure play.

• Proceeds will be used to expand products (including derivatives and yield), upgrade infrastructure and custody, build crypto-as-a-service platforms, and deepen RWA and staking capabilities—all highly relevant to DeFi and fintech.

• The deal is a test case for how public markets value regulated crypto infrastructure in Asia, and a signal about where institutional crypto adoption and tokenization may accelerate next.