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Xinmei Shen

Two major Hong Kong-based Web3 firms, HashKey Exchange and Animoca Brands, have signed a partnership deal as cryptocurrency firms in the city move to boost a virtual asset market that is still recovering from last year’s rout.
Animoca Brands, the blockchain investment and video gaming company, will list its Sand cryptocurrency token on HashKey Exchange, the two companies said on Tuesday at an event where they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a strategic partnership.
Professional investors will be able to trade the token on HashKey Exchange “in a day or two”, Yat Siu, Animoca co-founder and chairman, said at the event.
Sand is the native crypto token used by Animoca’s metaverse platform The Sandbox. While it was among more than a dozen tokens named by the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an unregistered security in June last year, Hong Kong regulators have not made such statements.
Under the agreement, Animoca will also open an account on HashKey Exchange, where Animoca Brand’s trading team will trade digital assets, said Siu. HashKey Exchange, operated by HashKey Group, is one of only two virtual asset exchanges in the city that have been licensed to serve retail investors.
Both Animoca and HashKey Group are classed as unicorns – start-ups that are valued at more than US$1 billion.
HashKey Group, established in Hong Kong in 2018, raised US$1.2 billion in a Series A funding round earlier this month that gave it a pre-money valuation of US$1.2 billion, the company said.
Hong Kong’s Animoca secures US$50 million from Saudi project in Web3 push
The two firms will also work together on offering “public education activities” about Web3, as public understanding of the term in the city is relatively “shallow” compared with many other markets, HashKey Group COO and HashKey Exchange CEO Livio Weng said at the joint signing event.
The partnership comes as crypto firms look to the future in the wake of a series of collapses in 2023, and as the launch of spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US gives the industry a long-awaited boost.
Spot bitcoin ETFs offered by fund giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity pulled in billions in their first few days of trading. These ETFs allow investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies without having to directly buy them from cryptocurrency exchanges.
Hong Kong, which in 2022 announced its ambition to become a major virtual asset hub, has laid out a regulatory framework for virtual assets, allowing regulators in the city to be potentially more “comfortable” with spot crypto ETFs than the US, experts say.
When Hong Kong approves spot crypto ETFs, regulators should consider allowing both spot bitcoin ETFs and spot ether ETFs, HashKey’s Weng said on Tuesday, noting that the city has a more “open” attitude on the issue than the US, where the topic of ether as a security is still controversial.


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Cryptocurrency

Hong Kong crypto unicorns Animoca Brands and HashKey strike partnership deal as industry gears up for market recovery

Cryptocurrency unicorns Animoca Brands and HashKey agree to partnership. Photo: Handout  

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu(Left) and HashKey Group CEO Livio Weng. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong needs to speed up approval of spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds after US launch, industry insiders say

The successful launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US is expected to help move Hong Kong regulators closer to authorising similar cryptocurrency funds to operate in the city. Photo: Shutterstock

Blackrock representatives ring the opening bell with guests at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on January 11, 2024, as spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds began trading. Photo: Bloomberg

HashKey claims ‘unicorn status’ after raising US$100 million for one of Hong Kong’s two licensed cryptocurrency exchanges

A view of HashKey Group’s booth during the 2021 Hong Kong FinTech Week at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 3 November 2021. Photo: Shutterstock.

Tightening noose: Hong Kong joins EU, US, South Korea and Singapore in tightening crypto rules, report says

In 2023, 17 jurisdictions including Hong Kong, the EU, South Korea, Singapore, and the US, tightened cryptocurrency regulations. Photo: Shutterstock 

In 2023, 17 jurisdictions including Hong Kong, the EU, South Korea, Singapore, and the US tightened cryptocurrency regulations. Photo: Bloomberg 

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Animoca Brands and HashKey Exchange have signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership
Under the deal, Animoca Brands will list its Sand cryptocurrency token on HashKey Exchange


Under the deal, Animoca Brands will list its Sand cryptocurrency token on HashKey Exchange as the crypto firms gear up for a recovery in the battered virtual asset market.


Metaverse

Blockchain

Financial regulation