HashKey has emerged as Hong Kong’s largest licensed crypto exchange, but its IPO reveals that one company is paying a lot for that position.
According to filings published Monday with the Hong Kong stock exchange, HashKey processed HK$638.4 billion (about $82 billion) in trading volume in 2024, about double the previous year, as its Hong Kong platform scales up with both institutional and retail users.
The company’s fee rate still hovered below 0.1 percent, reflecting a pricing strategy that prioritized market share over earnings. While HashKey commands about 75% of the Hong Kong market, its race-to-the-bot fee approach contributed to a net loss of more than $151 million (HK$1.18 billion) by 2024. That is likely to be a sticking point for investors weighing the company’s IPO.
Launched as a global venue offering a broader set of assets, HashKey’s Bermuda exchange saw trading volume collapse from about $23 billion in the first half of 2024 to about $1.4 billion a year later. The filing attributes the decline to a lack of on-off ramp capacity until the end of 2025 and a strategic pullback in marketing.
HashKey has pushed into tokenization, staking, and Web3 events to diversify its business, but the IPO shows that those lines are still far from meaningful.
Tokenization revenue only reached about $0.9 million (HK$7.0 million) in 2024, then fell to about $140,000 (HK$1.1 million) in the first half of 2025.
Web3 events – mainly from its conference in Hong Kong this spring – brought in about $4.8 million (HK$37.1 million) in 2024 and about $3.0 million (HK$23.7 million) in the first half of 2025, making them one of HashKey’s bigger non-trading revenue lines, though they remained small compared to its core exchange business.
The filing presents a diversified exchange with significant market traction, but the business model is still working to find a sustainable foundation.
HashKey’s dominance of Hong Kong’s licensed market underscores the reach of its platform, but its thin fees, modest new business areas and declining offshore activity highlight the financial pressures surrounding the IPO. Whether it paves the way for a viable way forward is now up to the investors to decide.
HashKey is a competitor to CoinDesk’s parent company, Bullish.
