Organizer: Tia, Techub News
As one of the leading cryptocurrency asset companies in Asia, HashKey Group has always been at the forefront of Web3 ecosystem development. From Hong Kong to Singapore, then to Japan and Bermuda, HashKey has established a globally compliant digital asset ecosystem network. In the rapid development of the Web3 ecosystem in Hong Kong, HashKey has not only built a compliant exchange but also driven innovation in the asset tokenization field with its Tokenisation business at its core.
In an exclusive interview with Techub News, Anna Liu of HashKey Group shared in-depth insights into the group's global strategy, the core values of the tokenization department, and the important role of tokenization in promoting the integration of traditional finance and the Web3 market in the future. From participating in the HKMA Ensemble project to supporting the tokenization of on-chain native and real-world assets, HashKey is empowering quality projects through technological innovation and compliance support, reshaping the rules of global capital flow. In this interview, we will delve into how HashKey leads the tokenization wave and outlines its future development blueprint.
Techub News: As another Asian financial center, why did HashKey choose to focus its strategic efforts on Hong Kong rather than Singapore? How does HashKey plan to leverage Hong Kong as a platform to promote global business development?
Anna Liu: Both Hong Kong and Singapore are not only Asian financial centers but are also expected to become global cryptocurrency asset centers in the future. We have deep layouts in both Hong Kong and Singapore and hold the relevant licenses. The first license issued to HashKey was the No. 9 license obtained by HashKey Capital in Hong Kong. The policy friendliness in both Hong Kong and Singapore is high, and the regulatory differences give each its own characteristics in the development of the Web3 industry. For instance, Hong Kong places more emphasis on the regulation of trading-related businesses, while Singapore focuses more on regulations in asset management, payments, and other fields. In the coming years, both places will continue to seek a balanced development between innovation and regulation, and the prospects are promising. Since 2018, HashKey Group has steadily built a global Web3 ecosystem spanning Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Bermuda, and other regions within a highly compliant regulatory framework. We will continue to promote the feasibility of large-scale applications of blockchain technology across multiple fields, providing trustworthy and accessible digital asset services to a billion users globally.
Techub News: HashKey's strategic layout in Hong Kong is not limited to exchanges but also covers a broad ecosystem construction. Could you elaborate on the overall strategy of HashKey Group in the global digital asset and Web3 fields? Especially the strategic role of the newly established Tokenisation department? How does the Tokenisation business empower other business units?
Anna Liu: We believe that the main theme of future industry development will be 'integration', therefore HashKey hopes to establish a full ecosystem of Web3 financial infrastructure within a high-compliance regulatory framework. On the one hand, we hope to promote the integration of traditional and Web3 financial markets, and on the other hand, we aim to promote the integration of Eastern and Western Web3 markets.
Currently, HashKey has established businesses in various fields including globally licensed exchanges, investment and asset management, tokenization, and infrastructure services. Most people might have first heard of HashKey Capital, which is expected to reach a fund management scale of $1 billion by 2024, having invested in over 600 blockchain projects, including well-known projects like Berachain, Babylon, Aethir, Catizen, and more in recent times. In the past two years, people might have heard more about HashKey Exchange, which has already surpassed a total trading volume of HKD 535 billion, with assets nearing HKD 6 billion, making it the largest compliant virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong. The offshore compliant exchange, HashKey Global, which obtained a Bermuda license, has achieved profitability within two months of its launch. As of November 11, according to the latest data from Coingecko, HashKey Global ranks 7th in global trading, becoming one of the fastest-growing licensed exchanges in the world in 2024. Additionally, our HashKey Cloud business provides professional, stable, and secure blockchain services to global clients, with its node validation services covering over 80 mainstream public chains, and asset management scale reaching over 1.2 million ETH, ranking among the top three in Asia and top ten globally.
From the perspective of the entire industry chain, HashKey Group has established a compliant and efficient secondary market. However, to ensure the sustainable and healthy development of the ecosystem, we deeply recognize the necessity of continuously introducing quality assets to maintain the ecosystem's vitality and innovative momentum. Therefore, last year we established the HashKey Tokenisation business line. Since its establishment in 2023, HashKey Tokenisation has focused on providing comprehensive digital asset issuance solutions for cooperative projects, helping Web3 startup teams from 0 to 1 in the token issuance process by providing professional support such as business consulting, technical guidance, economic model design, and legal compliance consulting. HashKey Tokenisation not only collaborates closely with multiple business units within the group but also engages in deep cooperation with a wide range of ecological partners of HashKey Group, aiming to achieve optimal resource allocation through mutual empowerment. We actively promote various funds within the group ecosystem to provide financing support for quality projects, fully leveraging the technical capabilities of HashKey Cloud to offer advanced infrastructure services to project partners, and connecting project parties with listing resources from compliant exchanges, including HashKey Exchange. Additionally, we have launched a public test and will go live with the mainnet of HashKey Chain this year, which will provide a bridge linking tokenisation projects to the Web3 ecosystem. Earlier, HashKey Tokenisation participated in the HKMA Ensemble project to assist in promoting the development of the tokenized market in Hong Kong.
This comprehensive service model not only effectively enhances the overall vitality of the HashKey Group ecosystem but also provides customers with reliable full lifecycle support, ensuring the maximization of interests and win-win outcomes for all parties. Through continuous collaborative cooperation and innovation-driven initiatives, HashKey Group consistently promotes the mutual growth and prosperity of the ecosystem, solidifying its leadership position in the global Web3 field.
Techub News: HashKey has consistently followed a compliant path, and it is presumed that HashKey's Tokenisation business should also be compliant. However, compliant Tokenisation seems difficult to expand the market; first, the requirements for investors are very high, and second, due to the need to comply with regulations, the biggest advantage of on-chain—composability and DeFi—cannot be participated in. According to this logic, the user group involved in Tokenisation should be relatively limited? Currently, what kind of users would choose to invest in Tokenisation assets? Given various disadvantages, what is HashKey's firm reason for choosing to develop Tokenisation? Or what significance does Tokenisation hold for the entire crypto industry? What role does Tokenisation play in it?
Anna Liu: To be precise, HashKey Tokenisation has always been committed to being at the forefront of the industry, combining compliance with market innovation to promote the enhancement of industry standards. We clearly recognize that the path to compliance is full of challenges, especially in simultaneously meeting strict regulatory requirements while satisfying the needs for innovation in on-chain business. Therefore, our team focuses on the global market, continuously exploring quality targets to support the healthy development of the industry.
The business direction of HashKey Tokenisation is mainly divided into two major areas: firstly, the tokenization of traditional assets, bringing more quality assets on-chain to achieve seamless integration with the Web3 ecosystem; secondly, support services for on-chain native assets, providing consulting, financing advice, technical support, and community operation resources for Web3 projects, creating a comprehensive solution.
Regarding the tokenization business, the current market is still in its infancy, with tokenization applications mainly at the proof of concept (PoC) stage. Although technology and compliance guidelines are not yet mature, it is precisely because of this that the industry needs leading enterprises to take the lead in demonstrating and driving technological progress and compliance innovation, ultimately achieving scaled applications. We choose to actively participate in this process because we believe that quality and unique assets will bring significant attractiveness to Hong Kong's compliant exchanges and financial ecosystem. Through differentiated asset combinations, we can provide Hong Kong with unique competitiveness in the global capital market, attracting the attention of international investors.
As a bridge and connector, we help cooperative projects issue digital assets, especially assisting entrepreneurs in gradually building asset issuance models from 0 to 1. In our deep involvement with cooperative projects, we not only invest significant time but also provide professional support in distributed ledger technology, token economics, and compliant issuance architecture, helping projects clarify their business models and growth paths.
By empowering quality asset tokenization through blockchain technology, HashKey Tokenisation can create liquidity for various projects, becoming a booster for Hong Kong's economic upgrade and industrial transformation. We provide a full range of services covering economic mechanism design, tokenization consulting, etc., for security token (STO) and real asset tokenization (RWA) projects, ensuring they achieve innovative financing models while complying with regulatory requirements.
Techub News: What are HashKey's visions for the future of Tokenisation? What is the roadmap to realize this vision? Where are the current focal points of Tokenisation, and what stage is the development of Tokenisation at? Are there plans for measures to expand the scale of Tokenisation?
Anna Liu: Our vision is to become Asia's leading professional service institution for Tokenisation, providing the market with replicable successful practices through high-standard benchmark projects, establishing an innovative and compliant brand image, and solidifying our unique positioning in the industry.
Development status and main focal points
Currently, the Tokenisation business is in its early development stage, and we are focused on the selection of quality assets and the compliant issuance of tokens. While maintaining close communication with regulatory authorities, we concentrate on how to effectively promote the primary market issuance of tokenized assets and the compliant circulation in the secondary market within the compliance framework.
The core challenges we face at this stage include:
(1) Identification and evaluation of quality assets: Tokenisation is not suitable for all assets. At this stage, most tokenization projects focus on ownership or future income rights, thus the assets suitable for tokenisation need to have stable value support and clear income prospects.
(2) Investment appeal in the primary market: Companies usually choose tokenization out of a need to expand financing channels or explore new markets. For investors, return on investment and stability are core concerns, so assets with higher value and stability are more attractive in the primary market.
(3) Expansion of liquidity in the secondary market: Under the current Hong Kong regulatory framework, tokenized assets are limited to participation by professional investors or institutions. Whether the investor range will be further broadened in the future remains to be seen, pending further regulatory guidance.
Future development phase
Based on this background, our future development path includes the following stages:
Step One: Benchmark project pilots. We will prioritize selecting quality assets with value support and stable returns to create compliant tokenization projects, verifying their primary issuance and secondary circulation mechanisms within the compliance framework.
Step Two: Explore the commercial integration with Web3. Within the limits of policy, we will launch a minimum viable product (MVP) and gradually cooperate with fields such as DeFi. By integrating with the Web3 business model, we will validate the feasibility and value creation potential of tokenisation in the emerging financial ecosystem.
Step Three: Scaled development. With the gradual improvement of regulatory policies, enhancement of technological capabilities, and continuous maturation of business models, when the commercial value is sufficient to support compliance costs, we will achieve scaled applications. Through this phase of ecological cooperation, we will attract more partners to jointly promote the implementation of tokenization on a global scale.
We firmly believe that with technological advancements and the gradual improvement of compliance standards, Tokenisation will become a key engine for the integration of financial innovation and capital markets, promoting the mainstream application of virtual assets and the efficient flow of global capital.
Techub News: Are there many projects currently developing Tokenisation in Hong Kong? What projects does the Tokenisation department mainly support? Which projects are worth paying attention to?
Anna Liu: In the field of on-chain native asset and real-world asset tokenization, HashKey Tokenisation has always been a pioneer in the industry. Many institutions and project parties are actively seeking cooperation with us to jointly promote innovation and implementation in tokenization business.
It is worth mentioning that HashKey has been deeply involved in the working groups of two key application directions of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Ensemble project: fixed income and investment funds, as well as green and sustainable finance.
In the direction of fixed income and investment funds, we collaborate with multiple institutions to jointly explore the market use cases of tokenized money market funds. Currently, pilot projects in this field are steadily advancing, aiming to construct a tokenized ecosystem that meets compliance requirements while enabling efficient trading. This is not only a supplement to traditional financial markets but also an innovative drive for the emerging virtual asset market.
In the direction of green and sustainable finance, we focus on the innovative combination of 'blockchain + Internet of Things', using digital methods to assist the tokenization issuance of more quality real-world assets. We believe that these assets should not only remain in the proof of concept stage but need to truly empower practical business scenarios. For example, we are actively exploring solutions that combine IoT data with blockchain to improve asset transparency and liquidity, bringing greater trust and efficiency to the market. Additionally, in the field of on-chain native assets, we are also actively trying various innovative directions. For example, in distributed computing networks, we address the computational power bottleneck in traditional markets through decentralized methods. This innovation not only helps reduce computing costs but also enhances the network's resilience and scalability through a distributed architecture, laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development of on-chain native assets.
The Hong Kong government aims to develop Hong Kong into an international virtual asset center, and HashKey Tokenisation will actively respond to this call. We are committed not only to pushing the frontier exploration of tokenization business but also to helping more Web3 projects that can create real commercial value to establish themselves in Hong Kong through professional services and innovative technologies. We believe that through close cooperation with the government and various industry stakeholders, Hong Kong will occupy a global leading position in the virtual asset and Web3 ecosystem.
Techub News: How to balance the cost and revenue issues in promoting the Tokenisation process?
Anna Liu: Tokenisation, as a tool for financial and business model innovation, has long-term growth potential, but the current early stage makes it difficult to cover costs with revenues. This is also the main reason why tokenisation has not been applied on a large scale. Commercial tokenisation business involves various cost challenges, such as compliance costs, technology development, market promotion, etc.
From the current perspective of tokenization projects in Europe and the U.S., scenarios where income is generated entirely on-chain (such as mining, liquidity provision, etc.) are more suitable for dividend token models. In these types of projects, income is automatically distributed through smart contracts, resulting in higher data authenticity and transparency. Although on-chain smart contracts can significantly simplify the dividend process, they still cannot completely replace auditing. Compared to traditional industries, auditing for these on-chain models has reduced difficulty and time costs, but they still need to meet regulatory conditions.
Overall, as an emerging industry, Tokenisation still needs to balance between reducing costs and achieving innovative returns. At the current stage, achieving 'cost reduction and efficiency improvement' through underlying technology improvements, combined with innovative models such as dividend tokens and automatic on-chain income distribution, Tokenisation has already shown potential for application in specific financial scenarios. With further improvements in technology and regulation, we are confident that Tokenisation will not only create new revenue models in the future but will also change the landscape of the capital market, providing broader development space for global financial innovation.
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