HASHKEY Virtual Asset Exchange, Hong Kong's first crypto asset stock—(03887.HK) December 2025 new stock analysis

$HASHKEY HLDGS(03887.HK)

Sponsors: J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited Guotai Junan Finance Limited

Offer Price: HKD 5.95 - HKD 6.95

Fundraising Amount: HKD 1.431 billion - HKD 1.672 billion

Total Market Cap: HKD 16.453 billion - HKD 19.218 billion

Board Lot: 400 shares

Minimum Subscription Fee: HKD 2,808.04

Offer Period: December 9, 2025 - December 12, 2025

Grey Market Trading Date: December 16, 2025

Listing Date: December 17, 2025 (Wednesday)

Total Offer Shares: 240.57 million shares

International Placement: 216.5128 million shares, ~90.00%

Public Offering: 24.0572 million shares, ~10.00%

Allocation Mechanism: Mechanism B

Interest Accrual Days: 3 days

Stabilizing Agent: J.P. Morgan

Issue Ratio: 7.89%

P/E Ratio: -15.00

Company Profile

Hong Kong's first licensed retail virtual asset exchange: Its flagship platform HashKey Exchange is the first SFC-licensed virtual asset trading platform for retail investors. This means it is subject to strict regulations similar to traditional financial institutions, with extremely high requirements for fund security, anti-money laundering, and user protection.

Comprehensive Licensing: The group holds multiple key licenses issued by the SFC, including: Type 1 License (Securities Trading): Allows trading of security tokens; Type 7 License (Providing Automated Trading Services): Exchange operation license; Type 9 License (Asset Management): Can offer digital asset fund management services.

HASHKEY HLDGS is a licensed digital asset integrated service provider, based in Asia with a presence globally. Its core positioning is to build a full digital asset ecosystem, meeting the diverse needs of retail investors, institutional clients, and blockchain value chain stakeholders through end-to-end financial infrastructure, technology solutions, and investment management services.

Core Business Segments (Three Key Services)

1. Trading Facilitation Services: Licensed digital asset trading platform. The Hong Kong platform supports trading of mainstream assets like USDT, BTC, and ETH, while the Bermuda platform covers 72 asset categories. In 2024, it ranked as Asia's largest regional onshore platform by trading volume.

2. On-Chain Services: Leveraging its self-developed HashKey Chain (a scalable, highly interoperable Layer 2 architecture), it is Asia's largest on-chain service provider by staked asset size.

3. Asset Management Services: Ranked among Asia's largest digital asset management institutions by AUM, with full-chain asset service capabilities.

Key Platform Data (As of September 30, 2025)

- Asset Coverage: Supports 80 digital asset tokens, including Layer-1 assets, DeFi tokens, stablecoins, and emerging ecosystem projects (no trading of other digital assets outside cryptocurrencies).

- Asset Size: Total platform assets exceed HKD 19.9 billion.

- Asset Security: 96.9% of assets are stored in cold wallets, 3.1% in hot wallets, ensuring asset security.

- Client Structure: Trading volume is primarily contributed by institutional clients, with institutional business being the core growth driver.

As a mature digital asset integrated service provider in Asia, the company holds regional leadership positions in trading, on-chain services, and asset management. With its licensed compliance advantages, proprietary Layer 2 technology architecture, and full-category product matrix, it has built a robust digital asset ecosystem barrier.

For the three fiscal years ended December 31, 2024, and the first six months of 2024 and 2025:

Revenue: ~HKD 129 million, HKD 208 million, HKD 721 million, HKD 384 million, HKD 284 million, down 26.09% YoY for the first eight months of 2025;

Gross Profit: ~HKD 125 million, HKD 195 million, HKD 533 million, HKD 278 million, HKD 184 million, down 33.73% YoY for the first eight months of 2025;

R&D: ~HKD -247 million, HKD -324 million, HKD -557 million, HKD -258 million, HKD -225 million, down 12.83% YoY for the first eight months of 2025;

Net Profit: ~HKD -585 million, HKD -580 million, HKD -1.19 billion, HKD -773 million, HKD -507 million, down 34.41% YoY for the first eight months of 2025;

Gross Margin: ~97.23%, 94.02%, 73.89%, 72.46%, 64.96%;

R&D Expense Ratio: ~191.52%, 155.96%, 77.24%, 67.26%, 79.32%;

Net Margin: -453.41%, -279.10%, -165.06%, -201.10%, -178.45%

Source: LiveReport Big Data

As of June 30, 2025, the company had HKD 397 million in cash and cash equivalents, with operating cash flow of -HKD 266 million.

Hong Kong is also the first licensed retail virtual asset exchange: Its flagship platform HashKey Exchange is the first SFC-licensed virtual asset trading platform for retail investors. This means it is subject to strict regulations similar to traditional financial institutions, with extremely high requirements for fund security, anti-money laundering, and user protection.

Comprehensive Licensing: The group holds multiple key licenses issued by the SFC, including:

Type 1 License (Securities Trading): Allows trading of security tokens.

Type 7 License (Providing Automated Trading Services): Exchange operation license.

Type 9 License (Asset Management): Can offer digital asset fund management services.

(From LiveReport)

II. Cornerstone Investors

There are 7 cornerstone investors, subscribing to 37.65% of the offering.

Total of 9 underwriters

Sponsor Track Record:

J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited

Guotai Junan Finance Limited

2. Allotment Rate and IPO Analysis

(From AIPO)

Current margin financing has been oversubscribed by 41 times.

Allotment rate analysis: This stock has a board lot of 2,800. Assuming the margin financing reaches 200 times for Group B, one can get 9-10 lots, with an allotment value of around HKD 20,000.

The required principal and financing amounts for each tier of Group A financing are as follows:

Group B requires a subscription amount of HKD 5.62 million. The required principal and financing amounts for each tier of Group B financing are as follows:

Based on the median offer price of HKD 6.45, the total estimated listing expenses are approximately HKD 92.8 million, with a fundraising amount of around HKD 1.552 billion, accounting for about 5.98% of the fundraising amount, which is relatively low.

Should you subscribe? Here's my analysis:

In its pre-IPO financing, Hashkey Hldgs completed two core funding rounds: First, it raised USD 42 million through convertible notes, corresponding to approximately 88.295 million Series A preferred shares, with a post-money valuation of USD 1.65 billion and a per-share cost between USD 0.4537 and USD 0.5509, representing a discount of 33.50% to 45.23% to the offer price. Subsequently, it conducted a Series A financing, raising USD 347 million, corresponding to approximately 508 million shares, with the same post-money valuation of USD 1.65 billion and a per-share cost of USD 0.6770, representing an 18.27% discount to the offer price. The two rounds raised a total of approximately USD 389 million, providing support for pre-IPO business development.

To bolster IPO confidence, Hashkey Hldgs has secured 9 cornerstone investors, including UBS, Xinting Fund, Wuji Capital, Zhiyuan Holdings, and CDH Investments, with a total investment of approximately HKD 584 million, accounting for 37.63% of the global offering and a total subscription amount of around USD 75 million, providing a baseline support for market performance during the IPO.

However, it should be noted that this IPO still carries certain risks: The current cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, with Bitcoin prices falling to around USD 80,000 in December 2025; Hashkey Hldgs itself remained in a loss-making position in the first half of 2025, with a net loss of HKD 507 million; and regulatory details in Hong Kong's virtual asset sector are still evolving, with uncertainty around future compliance costs and operational flexibility.

HASHKEY plans to offer 240.6 million shares globally (excluding over-allotment, with a maximum 30% issuance adjustment right), representing an issue ratio of 8.70%, with an offer price range of HKD 5.95-6.95, resulting in a post-issue market cap of approximately HKD 16.453 billion to HKD 19.218 billion.

(From LiveReport)

Hashkey has gone through twists and turns, and even introduced a 30% issuance adjustment right, which is excessive—normally it's only 15%, even less than the greenshoe. If the international placement is hot and both the over-allotment and issuance adjustment rights are exercised, the market will suddenly have 45% more shares. Normally, the issuance adjustment right is the same as the greenshoe over-allotment right, only 15%! This time, Hashkey inexplicably set it at 30%! If the international placement gets slightly hot and they exercise this issuance adjustment right, plus the greenshoe, the market will suddenly have 45% more shares! This stock is raising HKD 1.67 billion, equivalent to an additional HKD 800 million.

The main issue is the exchange—who in the market would buy it? Crypto speculators? Domestic capital can't go against policy—major domestic funds definitely won't dare to buy. Domestic long-term institutions wouldn't touch it, right? At least state-owned capital won't, as they can't oppose policy. It's hard to say how many overseas institutions would be interested. If overseas institutions aren't interested, this stock can only go to hedge funds. Another stock, OSL, which is also pushing for Stock Connect eligibility, has already risen 150% this year!

Although both have met the Stock Connect threshold, these two stocks share the same problem: Even after entering Stock Connect, who would dare to buy them for allocation? If you really want the international placement, you might even get it—Guotai Junan is the sponsor this time.