"Providing trustworthy digital asset services to one billion users around the world" is the vision that HashKey Group has always adhered to.
How to achieve it?
Adhere to the path of licensing, compliance, and supervision, and build a full-ecosystem Web3 financial infrastructure.
In the first half of 2024, the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved, opening a compliant channel for traditional funds to invest in cryptocurrencies; in the second half of the year, Trump's victory ushered in a global policy bull market, and the market focus gradually shifted to innovation and competition within the compliance framework. The entire crypto market fell into a carnival of constantly breaking through ATH.
Today, we look back with you at the key moments related to HashKey in 2024. These moments are the epitome of the high-speed market fluctuations projected on an industry participant. When we look back, we are pleasantly surprised to find that it is guiding us to see a door that is opening, a door to the "Golden Decade of Web3" .
January: “Funding” “Unicorn Enterprises”
In January, HashKey Group completed a nearly $100 million Series A financing with a pre-investment valuation of over $1.2 billion, joining the ranks of "unicorn companies."
This represents the financial market's recognition of the compliance track of the cryptocurrency market.
April: "HashKey Global" "Global Expansion"
In April, HashKey Global, an international licensed exchange that was granted a Class F license by the Bermuda Monetary Authority and allowed to provide licensed virtual asset trading services, was launched. HashKey Group officially entered the "dual flagship era" of licensed exchanges, and the pace of building the world's largest licensed exchange cluster was further accelerated.
HashKey Global quickly achieved profitability within two months of its launch, and ranked among the top 10 global exchanges on CoinGecko in June, becoming one of the fastest growing licensed exchanges in the world in 2024. As of December 5, HashKey Global had 910,000 new registered users, and its daily trading volume had climbed to US$250 million, ranking it 10th in the world on CoinGecko[1].
April: "HashKey Capital" "Hong Kong's first batch of virtual asset spot ETFs"
In April, Hong Kong officially approved the listing of 6 Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Among them, HashKey Capital and Bosera Asset Management jointly launched Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK) and HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK), and innovatively introduced the world's first "holding currency" subscription and redemption mechanism, opening up a channel for traditional compliant funds to enter the crypto market. On July 4, 2024, the total size of the two ETFs exceeded US$110 million, ranking first in Asia.
During the year, HashKey Capital cooperated with FTSE Russell to launch three major digital asset indices, including the FTSE Digital Asset 20 Index, the FTSE Digital Asset Infrastructure Index, and the FTSE Digital Asset Application Index, to meet the institutional needs for the investability and regulatory integrity of this new asset class, so that investors can understand the value changes of the digital asset market in real time.
As a leading global institutional asset management company, HashKey Capital will manage more than US$1 billion in funds in 2024. Its invested companies cover multiple sectors including institutional services, infrastructure, data, AI, consumer services and technology. It has also won the "Singapore SME500 Award" from the Singapore Trade and Business Association.
May: "Compliance" "Hong Kong Fully Licensed Unicorn"
In May, HashKey Exchange ("Hash Blockchain Limited") obtained the license to operate a virtual asset trading platform (AMLO license) under the Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance in Hong Kong. Against this background, HashKey Exchange has obtained the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission's Type 1, 7 and AMLO licenses. Members of the HashKey Group have also obtained all the required licenses from the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission to provide virtual asset-related services in Hong Kong according to their respective business needs, becoming a full-license virtual asset service unicorn company.
Currently, HashKey Group has obtained relevant licenses for engaging in virtual asset services in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Bermuda and other places, and will continue to promote the application for licenses in Europe and the Middle East.
"Global licensing" makes it possible for HashKey to serve 1 billion users.
June: "HashKey Cloud", "Top 3 in Asia", "STO", "Node Verification"
In June, as the technical cornerstone of HashKey Group, HashKey Cloud successfully ranked among the top 3 in Asia and top 10 in the world in node verification service providers in 2024.
So far, HashKey Cloud node verification covers more than 80 mainstream public chains, and support for 35 more public chains and protocols will be added in 2024. The total asset management scale (AUM) of node verification exceeds 3.8 billion USDT.
This year, HashKey Cloud launched STO infrastructure products for scenarios such as equity token financing and fund tokenization to serve customers with token product needs. It is expected that in the near future, projects such as fund tokenization and equity token financing will make significant progress, which will promote the compliance process of digital assets and the optimization of market structure.
July: "HashKey Exchange" "Hong Kong's largest*" "Stablecoin"
In July, many leading brokerage firms in Hong Kong were upgraded to No. 1 licenses. This year, HashKey Exchange, as one of the first virtual asset exchanges in Hong Kong that can serve retail users, launched HashKey Pro, an institutional-level professional comprehensive service, to help more than a dozen brokerage firms, banks and other technology and financial institutions including ZhongAn Bank and Shengli Securities to quickly integrate professional and reliable virtual asset trading functions. So far, a total of more than HK$5 billion in transactions have been completed.
In 2024, HashKey Exchange added two new tradable currencies, AVAX and LINK, to retail investors and 25 tradable currencies to professional investors (PI users), providing investors with a variety of virtual asset investment options. With its significant market leadership, HashKey Exchange's asset management scale exceeded HK$10 billion in November, with a cumulative trading volume of HK$580 billion, firmly ranking as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong[2].
HashKey Exchange also joined hands with Yuanbi Technology, which entered the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's stablecoin issuer sandbox, to promote the issuance of the future Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoin HKDR. We believe that the stablecoin market will grow exponentially in the future, and the application of stablecoins in cross-border payment scenarios will become the main scenario for many countries to explore the large-scale compliance adoption of cryptocurrencies.
With its outstanding business performance, HashKey Exchange was selected into the top 20 of Forbes' "The World's Most Trustworthy Crypto Exchanges And Marketplaces", and is the only exchange in Hong Kong to be on the list.
July: "Big Golden Dog", "Ten Million-level Airdrop", "Hash Pass"
In July, HashKey Group launched the first round of airdrops for its eco-coin HSK. The explosion of Telegram and TON ecosystems is one of the most noteworthy directions for the entire crypto industry in 2024. HashKey accurately grasps the market flow and launches the first Telegram Tap-to-Earn "Big Golden Dog" game in the on-chain wallet Hash Pass as the first round of airdrops for HSK. So far, "Big Golden Dog" has formed a community with more than 10 million active users.
August: "HashKey OTC" "Singapore"
In August, HashKey OTC's major payment institution license was officially approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide customers with regulated digital payment token ("DPT") trading services. Currently, HashKey OTC's trading volume has exceeded US$5 billion.
August: "HashKey Tokenisation" "RWA"
In August, HashKey Group announced that as a member of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Ensemble project architecture working group, it will explore the tokenization and trading of real-world assets (RWA) including carbon credits, green assets and money market funds in the project sandbox, and HashKey Tokenisation will be deeply involved.
As the tokenization service agency of HashKey Group, HashKey Tokenisation tokenizes high-quality assets, creates liquidity for Web2 and Web3 projects at all stages, and provides unique assets for compliant exchanges. It can become a bridge connecting the real economy, supporting innovative technology, and helping the construction of financial markets. With strong research capabilities, the financial book "Digital Assets: Innovation, Risk and Regulation" written by its team won the "Golden Sheep Award", the highest award for Chinese financial books, in 2024. During the year, HashKey Tokenisation also promoted the establishment of the "Open Source Alliance" to promote the application and development of open source ideas in the field of general artificial intelligence (AGI).
November: "HSK" "Eco-Coin"
In November, after a long period of polishing, HashKey Group launched the "eco-coin" HSK on several leading exchanges including HashKey Global. HSK can be used in a wide range of scenarios such as transaction fee discounts within the HashKey ecosystem, exclusive token priority purchase rights, node verification rewards, etc., and as the native token and gas token of the HashKey Chain. HSK holders will enjoy the governance and decision-making power of the HashKey Chain.
Adhering to long-termism, HSK has set a linear unlocking period of up to 4 years and will always distribute it to true community co-builders.
As a value capturer for the entire HashKey Group ecosystem, HSK rose to a high of US$2.56 as of December 27, with a maximum increase of 257.3% in 30 days[3]
The market’s recognition of HSK has allowed us to truly see the power of “ecosystem”.
December: "HashKey Chain" "Compliance on-chain infrastructure"
HashKey Exchange, HashKey Global, HashKey Capital, HashKey Cloud are all the fundamentals of HashKey Group, but this is still not enough. What HashKey Group needs to build is a Web3 financial infrastructure that fully connects the on-chain and off-chain. This requires an open, decentralized financial system that is accessible to everyone worldwide.
On December 18, 2024, HashKey Group launched the "compliance-friendly" on-chain financial infrastructure L2 public chain HashKey Chain, providing global users with a faster and lower-cost full-stack on-chain Web3 solution, and providing a multi-dimensional, multi-level compliance-friendly on-chain infrastructure for the on-chain deployment of traditional financial products.
The launch of HashKey Chain also connects all HashKey ecosystems, forming a powerful system that can promote and empower each other and collaborate on a large scale.
2024: “Everything is just right” 2025: Entering the “Golden Decade of Web3”
In 2024, we see that licensed exchanges, ETFs, RWAs, STOs, and stablecoins are driving the deep integration of the on-chain and off-chain financial markets. The compliant, full-ecological Web3 infrastructure built by HashKey Group is becoming a bridge between traditional finance and crypto finance through these innovative financial tools, bringing us to the door of the "Golden Decade of Web3".
In the next decade, "providing trustworthy digital asset services to one billion users around the world" will not be out of reach.
Fortunately, in 2024, "everything is just right."
[1] As of December 5, 2024, HashKey Global ranks 10th in the CoinGecko global exchange rankings.
[2] As of December 27, 2024, HashKey Exchange ranked 7th in the CoinGecko global exchange rankings, making it the highest-ranked licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong.
[3] As of December 27, 2024, GoinGecko data shows that the HSK has risen to US$2.56.
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