HashKey Pursues Hong Kong IPO Amid Institutional Growth and Heavy Cash Burn
HashKey, one of Asia’s largest regulated crypto exchanges, is targeting up to HK$1.67 billion ($215 million) in a Hong Kong IPO, according to its prospectus. The filing highlights expanding institutional activity, growing staking and tokenization pipelines, and a user base exceeding 1.44 million accounts.
The company also disclosed significant losses, totaling over HK$3.0 billion ($386 million) from 2022 through mid-2025, driven by investments in custody, compliance, and on-chain infrastructure. In the first half of 2025, HashKey lost HK$506.7 million and averaged HK$40.9 million in monthly cash burn during Q3.
HashKey emphasizes the leverage provided by its regulated structure. Major costs—licensing, custody, and risk infrastructure—scale more slowly than revenue from trading, staking, and management fees, offering potential margin improvement as adoption grows. Registered users surged from fewer than 200 in 2022 to 1.44 million today.
The filing also notes a strategic pivot: retail trading declined in early 2025, while institutional flows remained resilient. HashKey Global, its Bermuda-registered retail platform, was scaled back due to limited fiat on- and off-ramps. The company is focusing on its onshore platform, linked to licensed fiat channels, ETF flows, and traditional financial institutions.
With cash, digital assets, and anticipated IPO proceeds, HashKey estimates over 70 months of liquidity under conservative assumptions.
HashKey competes directly with Bullish, parent company of CoinDesk
Share this content:
