How HashKey plans to become Hong Kong’s first crypto IPO

Key takeaways

• HashKey is aiming to become Hong Kong’s first fully crypto-native IPO by listing 240.57 million shares under the city’s virtual asset regulatory regime.

• The business extends beyond a spot exchange by combining trading, custody, institutional staking, asset management and tokenization into a single regulated platform.

• Revenue is growing, but the company is still incurring losses as it invests heavily in technology, compliance and market expansion.

• Most IPO proceeds are expected to fund infrastructure and international growth, positioning the listing as a long-term bet on regulated digital asset markets.

HashKey wants to become the first crypto exchange that Hong Kong investors can buy on their local stock market. The company has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that could make it the city’s first publicly listed, fully crypto-native venue under the new virtual asset regime. It is offering 240.57 million shares, with a portion reserved for local retail investors.

Shares are being marketed in a range of 5.95-6.95 Hong Kong dollars, which could rise to 1.67 billion HKD, about $215 million, and imply a multibillion-dollar valuation if the offering is fully subscribed.

Trading is expected to begin on Dec. 17 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

HashKey already operates what it describes as Hong Kong’s “largest licensed platform,” a broader stack that includes custody, institutional staking and tokenization. In its latest filing, the group reported tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in staking assets and platform assets under management.

In the sections that follow, we will look at what the business does, how its financials compare, how it plans to use the IPO proceeds and why the outcome of this listing matters for understanding Hong Kong’s broader virtual asset ambitions.

Did you know? Some analysts view HashKey’s IPO as a real-time test of whether public markets are willing to back heavily regulated crypto infrastructure.

Why HashKey’s IPO could be a key step for Hong Kong

HashKey is among the first major attempts to put Hong Kong’s new virtual asset rulebook in front of public equity investors. The exchange plans to offer 240.57 million shares in total, with 24.06 million allocated to local investors and the remainder to international buyers, at a maximum offer price of 6.95 HKD per share.

Final pricing is due on Dec. 16, 2025, with trading scheduled to begin the next day under the proposed stock code 3887. If the offering is fully subscribed at the top of the range, it could rise to 1.67 billion HKD, about $215 million, potentially making HashKey one of the more prominent listed crypto-focused companies in Asia.

The listing is also a milestone in Hong Kong’s effort to rebuild its status as a digital asset hub after years of regulatory uncertainty. Over the past two years, the city has introduced a dedicated licensing regime for retail and institutional crypto platforms, allowed tightly controlled staking services and strengthened custody requirements and stablecoin oversight.

HashKey offers an early, detailed look at what a fully regulated, multi-line crypto business can look like under that framework.

The IPO could serve as a real-time test of investor appetite for compliance-first crypto infrastructure, especially as mainland China maintains strict limits on many digital asset activities. Beijing has already moved to halt some large tech-backed stablecoin projects in the city: Hong Kong’s experiment does have political limits.

How HashKey trades after its debut may be seen as an early indication of whether those constraints still leave enough room for a profitable, listed crypto exchange to succeed.

Did you know? HashKey Group has backing from established institutional investors, including entities linked to Wanxiang, which gives it a more traditional finance profile than many offshore exchanges.

What business is actually going public?

On paper, HashKey Holdings is an exchange IPO. In practice, investors are being offered a broader crypto infrastructure stack that has already been reviewed and licensed under Hong Kong’s regulatory framework.

At the core is HashKey Exchange, a Hong Kong-based trading venue licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under Type 1 and Type 7 licenses for dealing in and operating a virtual asset trading platform. It supports spot trading, over-the-counter services and fiat on- and off-ramps in HKD and USD. The company describes itself as Hong Kong’s largest licensed venue serving both retail and professional clients.

Around that sits a broader ecosystem. HashKey Cloud provides institutional staking and node services, and the company says it has received approval to support staking for Hong Kong’s spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In its filings, HashKey reported managing about 29 billion HKD in staked assets as of the end of the third quarter of 2025, positioning it as one of Asia’s largest staking providers and among the larger players globally.

The group also operates an asset management arm offering crypto funds and venture strategies. According to its filings, it had about 7.8 billion HKD in assets under management as of Sept. 30, 2025. It has also moved into tokenization through HashKey Chain, a network focused on real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins and institutional use cases. The company reported roughly 1.7 billion HKD in onchain RWAs on the network.

Finally, HashKey has been building out crypto-as-a-service tools and pursuing licenses across markets, including Singapore, Dubai, Japan, Bermuda and parts of Europe. This suggests the IPO is intended to support international expansion and a white-label infrastructure model, not just a single market Hong Kong exchange.

Did you know? According to HashKey’s disclosures, its RWA network has already tokenized more than 1 billion HKD worth of real-world assets onchain, including products such as structured notes and private credit.

Revenue, losses and the “compliance-first” bet

HashKey reflects a typical growth-stage pattern: Revenue has risen quickly, but the business remains cash-consuming as it invests in expansion, licensing and compliance. Total revenue increased from about 129 million HKD in 2022 to 721 million HKD in 2024, more than a 4.5x rise in two years, as its Hong Kong and Bermuda exchanges launched and trading activity grew.

That growth has not yet translated into profits. A review of the filing indicates net losses nearly doubled over the same period, from 585.2 million HKD in 2022 to 1.19 billion HKD in 2024, driven by higher spending on technology, headcount, compliance and marketing.

Trading volumes rose from 4.2 billion HKD in 2022 to 638.4 billion HKD in 2024, but a low-fee strategy and the costs of operating licensed venues across multiple jurisdictions kept the bottom line deeply negative.

More recent numbers suggest the trajectory may be improving. In the first six months of 2025, HashKey reported a net loss of 506.7 million HKD, narrower than the 772.6 million HKD loss in the same period a year earlier.

The company frames these losses as the cost of building a licensed, compliant and scalable digital asset platform ahead of the market cycle. It argues that the long, expensive build-out mirrors how earlier exchange leaders looked before they became profitable.

How HashKey plans to use the IPO proceeds

HashKey is explicit about how it plans to use the new capital.

• Roughly 40% of the net proceeds are earmarked for technology and infrastructure upgrades over the next three to five years. This includes scaling HashKey Chain and the exchange’s matching engine, as well as strengthening custody, security and back office systems. Company summaries also point to derivatives, yield products and improved institutional tools as specific build-out areas, which would move HashKey closer to the full suite product set offered by larger international venues.

• Another 40% is allocated to market expansion and ecosystem partnerships. In practice, this means pushing more aggressively into new jurisdictions and scaling crypto as a service arrangements where banks, brokers and fintechs connect to HashKey’s custody and trading stack via APIs rather than building the full infrastructure in-house. The company’s discussion of overseas licensing and institutional relationships suggests it aims to differentiate itself from exchanges that rely primarily on retail activity.

• The remaining 20% is split between operations and risk management (10%) and working capital and general corporate purposes (10%). This includes hiring, strengthening compliance and internal controls and maintaining balance sheet flexibility to navigate market cycles.

What’s next?

There are three things to watch as December unfolds:

• How the deal is priced and how the shares trade after listing

• Whether HashKey can turn its full stack, including exchange, custody, staking and tokenization, into steady, diversified revenue

• How firmly Hong Kong maintains its licensed but open approach to digital assets.

If HashKey executes well, it could give other exchanges, banks and tokenization projects a clearer pathway to go public in the city. If it struggles, the outcome may highlight where the practical limits of Hong Kong’s virtual asset experiment lie.