Good News on Listing | Frost & Sullivan Assists HashKey Holdings Limited in Successful Hong Kong Listing (3887.HK)

HashKey Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'HashKey') successfully listed on December 17, 2025, with a planned issuance of 241 million H shares, of which 90% are international offerings and 10% are public offerings; the issue price per share is set at HK$6.68, raising a total of HK$1.61 billion.

During the process of listing in Hong Kong this time, Frost & Sullivan mainly undertook the following tasks: helping the issuer accurately and objectively understand its positioning in the target market, using objective market data to discover, support and highlight the issuer's competitive advantages, assisting the issuer, investment banks and other intermediaries in completing the writing of relevant parts of the prospectus (such as overview, competitive advantages and strategy, industry overview, business and other important chapters), helping the issuer complete communication with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and investors, assisting investors in quickly understanding the market ecosystem and competitive landscape, and providing assistance to the issuer in completing feedback on various industry-related issues from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, etc.

Frost & Sullivan has always been a leader in helping companies go public in Hong Kong. According to LiveReport's big data (statistical data as of September 30, 2025), from January to September 2025, as well as during the past 12 and 36 months, Frost & Sullivan provided listing industry advisory services for 47 (market share of 72%), 62 (market share of 69%), and 162 (market share of 70%) Hong Kong-listed IPOs respectively, ranking first in terms of number. It has a rich accumulation of industry experience and communication skills with regulatory authorities, exchanges, investment and financing institutions, and various related agencies.

• HashKey holds licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Bermuda, the United Arab Emirates, and other locations, establishing a global layout prioritizing compliance. Based on transaction volume, pledged assets, and managed assets for 2024, it is one of the leading onshore digital asset platforms, blockchain service providers, and asset management institutions in Asia.

   

• HashKey simultaneously arranges for transaction facilitation services, on-chain services (pledging + tokenization + HashKey chain), and asset management, connecting the entire 'issuance - transaction - custody - investment' chain. The shared licenses, custody, risk control, and technical infrastructure create a network effect and cross-selling, enhancing customer retention and monetization efficiency.

According to the Frost & Sullivan report, in terms of transaction volume in 2024:

• HashKey is the largest regional onshore digital asset platform in Asia and the largest in Hong Kong, with a market share exceeding 75%.

   

• HashKey ranks eighth among service providers on the global digital asset chain and is also the largest provider on the Asian market.

   

• In terms of the managed digital asset scale as of the end of 2024, HashKey is the largest digital asset management service provider in Asia.

The current financial system, through continuous innovation and development, has supported large-scale global business operations for over a century. However, it relies on architectures developed before the digital age. Transactions often need to be processed through multiple intermediaries, leading to high transaction fees, settlement delays, and counterparty risks. At the same time, high service costs and strict account opening procedures have left billions of people without adequate services or excluded from the global financial system.

Meanwhile, a new digital financial system oriented towards the internet era is emerging. Just as the early internet started with simple applications and ultimately reshaped the entire industry through network compound effects, blockchain networks based on distributed ledger technology are laying the foundation for building a faster, more transparent, and programmable financial system. More importantly, users can directly own assets on the chain, linking their interests closely with network development. This ownership mechanism deepens market confidence, accelerates adoption and popularization, and strengthens the resilience of ecosystems.

● Faster speed and lower cost

Blockchain networks eliminate multiple reconciliation steps, reducing reliance on intermediaries. Transactions can proceed without interruption throughout the year and be settled within seconds at internet speed, thereby reducing transaction fees, mitigating counterparty risks, and enhancing accessibility.

●Security and Transparency

Distributed ledgers achieve synchronized updates among multiple participants, preventing tampering and allowing for immediate transaction record auditing. This ensures data integrity as transactions can be verified at any time.

● Programmable and more use cases

From the value storage function of Bitcoin to payment applications of stablecoins, and then to lending P2P financial applications, the built-in programmability of smart contracts is continuously expanding to cover an increasingly diverse range of use cases such as digital markets, decentralized identity authentication, storage services, and governance.

Bitcoin, as the first digital asset, quickly gained early attention after its inception in 2009, becoming a decentralized medium for value storage and transaction. Digital assets were initially for niche interests but have now become a mainstream component of the global financial system as well as an asset class worth tens of billions of dollars. As of the last practicable date, the market value of digital assets reached $4 trillion, with more than 18,000 digital asset tokens in circulation.

Due to the maturity of blockchain technology, increased regulatory clarity, and enhanced user participation, digital assets are widely regarded as entering a critical moment —&mdash&the decisive turning point towards mainstream adoption, similar to the 'Internet of 1995'. In 1995, the Internet was recognized as entering a commercial phase. Similarly, monthly active digital asset addresses reached a new historical high of 220 million in September 2024, tripling compared to the end of 2023. This growth pattern reminds us of the rapid rise in early internet adoption.

Source: Frost & Sullivan report

● Regulatory Clarity

In recent years, major jurisdictions with judicial power have introduced clearer and more explicit frameworks for digital assets, including the US 'GENIUS Act (2025)', the EU's 'Markets in CryptoAssets Regulation (2023)', and the virtual asset trading platform system in Hong Kong (2023). By creating a more supportive and clearly defined ecosystem for digital assets, increasingly clear regulation not only cultivates a safer environment by reducing investment risks and building confidence through tangible safeguards for investor protection and market integrity, but also actively encourages broader participation through expanding application scenarios and product innovation.

●Enhanced institutional participation

Global financial institutions such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and JPMorgan Chase have been offering digital asset services and investing in this field. Spot Bitcoin and EthereumETFOver $165 billion has been attracted into the market. Corporate treasury positions (such as Strategy and Metaplanet) and tokenization pilot programs for government bonds, corporate bonds, and funds are also gradually becoming popular.

● Popularization continues to climb

With the support of verified use cases, more users are joining the digital asset ecosystem, accelerating mainstream adoption. Meanwhile, developer activities remain active, with over 27,000 active developers on major blockchain networks.

With the expansion of the digital asset economy, the demand for services supporting related assets has also increased. Digital asset services have become a pillar of emerging digital financial systems, covering infrastructure and platforms that enable users to issue, trade, invest, manage, and store their digital assets. These services include exchanges, custodian service providers, staking node validators, and asset management companies. The digital asset service market is typically divided into three major sub-markets: transaction facilitation services, on-chain services, and asset management services.

● Transaction activities shift from offshore to onshore venues

In the early stages, the regulatory framework was not clear and explicit, with most transactions taking place on unlicensed offshore exchanges. Such platforms often lacked the motivation to adopt appropriate standards for compliance, governance, and risk management, leading to issues such as Mt. GoxFTXSeveral major bankruptcies, including Voyager, have weakened market confidence and dampened industry development. However, in recent years, with the introduction of more complete and clear digital asset regulatory frameworks in major jurisdictions such as the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore, more licensed onshore exchanges that meet AML/KYC and customer asset protection legal requirements have emerged. As a result, trading activities are gradually shifting from offshore to onshore exchanges, not only attracting retail users but also more institutional capital seeking safe and compliant ways to access digital assets. With this shift, onshore trading volume is expected to grow by 48.9% from 2024 to 2029, exceeding the 19.6% increase in offshore trading volume during the same period. In addition, the proportion of onshore trading volume in total trading volume is expected to increase from 16.3% in 2024 to 36.8% in 2029, reflecting the structural shift of liquidity towards onshore venues.

● Accelerate the advancement ofDigital TwinTokenization

The first wave of digital assets includes digital native tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. These assets have developed into an asset class worth tens of billions of dollars, and are expected to continue growing as applications become more widespread and in-depth. At the same time, the market has expanded from 'digital native' assets to include tokenized 'digital twins', including off-chain assets based on blockchain, such as stablecoins, stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, and private equity funds.

Although still in its early stages, the potential opportunities of "digital twins" tokens are vast. As of the last actual practicable date, the market value of digital native assets reached $4 trillion. In comparison, the potential market for stocks alone is as high as $126.7 trillion, and if stocks and bonds are included, it amounts to $271.8 trillion. Stablecoins have proven their product-market fit and recorded over $27 trillion in transactions in 2024. Tokenization can not only replicate existing financial instruments but also enable round-the-clock trading, near-instant settlement, fractional ownership, and increased investor participation, thereby unlocking the liquidity of assets.

● Financial activities are transferred to the blockchain

Financial activities are shifting from off-chain ledgers, which are used by centralized financial institutions, to on-chain ledgers driven by blockchain technology. Due to the advancement of blockchain technology, network scalability and efficiency have been significantly improved, supporting higher transaction throughput and laying the foundation for a broader range of use cases. In addition to simple transfers, on-chain services now cover a variety of financial activities such as loans, borrowing, transactions, derivatives, perpetual contracts, structured products, insurance, and stablecoin payments.

Trading facilitation services refer to centralized exchanges that facilitate the buying and selling, exchange of digital assets between parties. These platforms act as intermediaries, providing core market infrastructure including order matching and execution, market making and liquidity supply, as well as settlement and clearing operations. In the centralized exchange model, transactions are conducted through the platform's order book rather than directly on-chain. There are mainly two types of providers participating in the digital asset trading facilitation service market: onshore digital asset trading facilitation service providers and offshore digital asset trading facilitation service providers.

The Onshore Digital Asset Exchange operates solely through registered entities, which are licensed and regulated by the judicial jurisdictions that have implemented a comprehensive digital asset legal framework. This framework typically includes compliance with AML and KYC regulations, minimum capital requirements, custody standards, customer asset segregation, network security, and continuous regulatory reporting conditions.

Offshore digital asset exchanges operate within judicial jurisdictions that have already implemented a comprehensive legal framework for digital assets, using entities that have not obtained legal permission or are not regulated. Such exchanges may also be registered or established in judicial jurisdictions lacking an equivalent legal framework, operate without a clear business location, or provide services globally without local authorization or regulatory review.

The global digital asset trading facilitation service market has seen rapid growth, with onshore exchanges accounting for a particularly significant proportion. The market size of global digital asset trading facilitation services, calculated based on one-way trading volume, has increased from $5.5 trillion in 2020 to $25.7 trillion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 47.0%. Looking ahead, the scale of the global digital asset trading facilitation market is expected to continue expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 26.6% to reach $83.5 trillion by 2029. At the same time, with regulatory improvements, fiat access, and increased institutional participation in licensed exchanges across the United States, the European Union, and Asia, onshore trading volume has rapidly increased, rising from $0.5 trillion in 2020 to $4.2 trillion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 70.2%. It is expected that this momentum will continue, with a market size reaching $30.7 trillion, and a compound annual growth rate of 48.9% from 2024 to 2029.

Source: Frost & Sullivan report

●Enhanced institutional participation

In 2024, institutional trading volume accounted for 65.0% of the global total trading volume and is expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate of 30.6% between 2024 and 2029, accounting for 76.0% of the global trading volume by 2029, surpassing retail trading in growth rate. Institutional funds have not only become a more stable source of trading volume and revenue but also tend to choose licensed platforms.

● Retail penetration continues to grow

Driven by the all-weather (24/7/365) trading model, mobile-first applications, and lower entry barriers, retail investors remain an important driver of trading volumes. The global transaction facilitation service market size at the retail end has grown from $3.1 trillion in 2020 to $9.0 trillion by 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 30.5%. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% to reach $20.0 trillion by 2029.

●The Rise of One-Stop Platforms

As more and more participants seek to become all-in-one service providers with deep liquidity, economies of scale are increasingly strategic. A large liquidity pool can achieve narrower bid-ask spreads and more efficient price discovery processes. In contrast, small platforms focused on a single market often struggle to compete due to fragmented order books, insufficient market depth, and limited product offerings. Therefore, this trend is driving accelerated industry integration (such as Coinbase acquiring Deribit, Kraken acquiring NinjaTrader), resulting in a pattern of fewer but larger regional/global platforms.

Based on the transaction volume calculated by both buyers and sellers on a total basis for 2024, HashKey ranks sixth among global onshore digital asset trading facilitation service providers; it is the largest regional onshore digital asset trading facilitation service provider in Asia; and it is the largest digital asset trading facilitation service provider in Hong Kong.

Digital asset chain services refer to the services provided on blockchain networks, mainly including staking and tokenization services. Chain services are executed through smart contracts on public distributed ledgers, ensuring that transactions on the chain are transparent and tamper-proof.

●Pledge

In Proof of Stake (PoS) networks, token holders can participate in maintaining network security by directly staking tokens or entrusting them to professional node validators who manage technical operations. In return, stakers receive rewards distributed by the protocol. If the entrustment method is chosen, the node validators share the staking rewards with the entrusting user.

● Tokenization

This process refers to the creation of digital tokens on the blockchain that represent ownership or rights to real-world assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities. Such tokens can be traded, transferred, and settled directly on the blockchain 24/7 (365 days a year), allowing blockchain participants to obtain partial ownership of these tokenized assets and enhancing liquidity on the blockchain.

The global pledge service market size grew from $28 billion in 2020 to $389 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 93.2%. Similar to the digital asset trading facilitation service market, the rapid contraction of the pledge service market in 2022 and 2023 was mainly due to the decline in the price of PoS tokens. The sharp drop in the prices of major PoS assets such as Ethereum and Solana led to a decrease in the total value of pledged assets. It is expected that the market size will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 48.4% to reach $2,803 billion by 2029.

The global tokenization service market size grew from $28 billion in 2020 to $219 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 67.7%. It is expected that the market size will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 94.8% to reach $6138 billion by 2029. The forecast growth slowdown from 2024 to 2029 reflects the market transitioning from an early rapid expansion phase to a more mature and standardized development stage.

● The Rise of Flowing Property Pledge and Re-Pledge Agreements

As major blockchains transition towards Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanisms, staking has become a fundamental on-chain service. In addition to direct participation, the emergence of liquid staking protocols (such as Lido and Rocket Pool) and re-staking platforms (such as EigenLayer and EtherFi) not only lower the threshold for participation but also significantly improve capital efficiency. These solutions enable users to deploy assets synchronously with other applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi) while receiving staking rewards, transforming staking from a technical function to a dual role that includes both network security and core revenue products.

●The company develops its own private blockchain

Leading companies, technology firms, and digital asset companies are actively launching their own blockchains to gain control over distribution, commercialize, and expand user bases. Examples include Coinbase's launch of the Base chain, Robinhood's release of a layer-two chain, and Circle's initiation of the ARC chain. These moves enable companies to capture a larger share of value in the transaction chain, integrate native products, and lock in users while strengthening their ecosystems.

●Scalable infrastructure drives growth in activities

As scalable infrastructure supports more use cases beyond simple transfers, blockchain activities are accelerating. In 2024, the settlement scale of stablecoins exceeded $27 trillion, achieving a true fit between products and markets. At the same time, the tokenization of real-world assets and optimized blockchain networks that can support higher transaction throughput and lower costs are continuously driving the implementation of more use cases and scenarios.

HashKey ranks eighth among service providers on the global digital asset chain and is also the largest provider of services on the Asian digital asset chain as of December 31, 2024.

Digital asset management services refer to the specialized investment management of portfolios mainly comprising cryptocurrencies, tokenized physical assets, and blockchain-based financial instruments. These services are presented diversely through public and private carriers, covering active and passive investment strategies, targeting both retail and institutional investors. Digital asset management service providers refer to fund managers who use their expertise in the digital asset field to manage investments on behalf of their clients, ensuring that portfolio decisions align with the clients' investment objectives. This enables clients to participate in the rapidly developing digital asset market through professional management and structured investment strategies.

The global digital asset management service market size increased from $28 billion in 2020 to $161 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 54.6%. It is expected that the market size will continue to grow at a compound annual rate of 54.5% to reach $1.414 trillion by 2029. Similar to other markets, the forecasted growth slowdown from 2024 to 2029 reflects the gradual maturity and stabilization of the global digital asset management market.

Source: Frost & Sullivan report

● Digital assets have become a mainstream alternative investment form

Institutions and retail investors are increasingly viewing digital assets as a mainstream asset class. Incorporating crypto assets into portfolios helps to enhance expected total returns while reducing volatility. Digital assets are gradually being considered by institutions as a means of participation.Web3Approaches to leveraging the dividends of technology transformation and blockchain application development.

● Encrypted ETFs broaden investors' participation channels

ETFs provide a simple entry point into the digital asset space through traditional channels, eliminating the need to interact with crypto exchanges or wallets, thereby expanding the participation of various investors. In addition to lowering entry barriers, ETFs are typically subject to stricter custody, compliance, and liquidity regulations, which help attract relatively cautious retail investors and conservative global pension funds, improving capital access conditions.

● Popularization of digital asset vault strategies

More and more companies are adopting the Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy, purchasing and holding digital assets as treasury assets, which helps businesses balance liquidity, generate income, and diversify risks. This has also become a lever for companies to utilize digital assets in their business strategies, such as integrating cryptocurrencies as payment settlement tools. Taking Metaplanets as an example, the company has made its business dual-attribute through its Bitcoin fund management strategy: it can generate income from regular business operations and create potential gains from the appreciation of Bitcoin value, thereby driving growth in return on equity together.

As of December 31, 2024, in terms of the managed digital asset scale, HashKey is the largest digital asset management service provider in Asia.