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


HashKey Group, the company behind one of Hong Kong’s two cryptocurrency exchanges accredited to serve retail investors, said it has raised nearly US$100 million in a funding round that values ​​it at more than US$1 billion, making it a so-called unicorn.

Existing and new investors participated in the new Series A round, giving HashKey a pre-fund valuation of US$1.2 billion, the Hong Kong-based company said. He said in a statement Tuesday, without revealing any names.

OKX Ventures, the investment arm of OKX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and an applicant for a virtual asset exchange license in Hong Kong, is one of the lead investors in HashKey’s funding round, Bloomberg reported. Both HashKey and OKX declined to comment.

HashKey operates the licensed HashKey Exchange, venture capital and asset management arm HashKey Capital, and other blockchain technology services. It said it will use the funding to “solidify” its web3 ecosystem, diversify its licensed product offering in Hong Kong and grow its business globally.

China’s backdoor cryptocurrency traders appear more important than ever to Binance’s future

HashKey Group, founded in Hong Kong in 2018, has received approval from the Securities and Futures Commission. Last August To serve retail investors under the city’s new system of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

HashKey said last month that the exchange had attracted 15,500 registered users at the end of 2023, with daily trading volume exceeding US$630 million in December. It said nearly 40 percent of the value traded on its platform came from professional investors.

What does Hong Kong mean by virtual assets?

The HashKey exchange handled $15.3 million in trading volume over the 24 hours through Tuesday, according to market tracking website CoinGecko. This is a small amount compared to the $13.6 billion USD traded during the same period on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

HashKey is one of a group of cryptocurrency companies banking on Hong Kong’s push to embrace the virtual assets industry, even as public perception of the sector has declined following scandals involving companies including FTX And GPEX.

Twelve companies have so far submitted their applications for a Hong Kong license for virtual asset trading platforms.

High costs cloud the dream of a cryptocurrency hub in Hong Kong

Venture capital funding in the cryptocurrency industry declined last year after a series of collapses in 2022. In the three months ending September 2023, cryptocurrency companies around the world raised US$1.8 billion across 309 deals, representing a 69.6 percent decline in Transaction value and 55.9 percent. A percent decrease in the number of deals compared to the same period last year, according to PitchBook data.

The market has recently rebounded on the back of enthusiasm brought by US approval of the first bitcoin spot trading funds (ETFs), which allow investors to gain exposure to virtual assets without purchasing any cryptocurrency tokens directly.

Hong Kong also said last month that it would move to open retail access to cryptocurrency ETFs, after previously only allowing retail participation in… Cryptocurrency Futures ETFswhich holds cryptocurrency futures contracts, rather than direct investments in cryptocurrency tokens at their spot prices.

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