Crypto Firm Hashkey Seeks Funds At $1B Valuation

The Hong Kong-based investment firm Hashkey Group is looking to raise $100 million to $200 million at a valuation above $1 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.

The move comes as Hong Kong looks to push investments in the digital asset space to strengthen its reputation as a forward-looking financial hub. That reputation took a hit after years of pandemic-related slowdown and talent migration.

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Hashkey is a digital asset management and finance house, operating in several areas including venture capital and digital coin trading. The firm has one of the city’s only two licensed virtual asset trading platforms by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission.

Founded in 2018, Hashkey was an early corporate investor in Ethereum.

The crypto slowdown

Like many industries, blockchain and crypto have seen a significant slowdown in investment since the start of last year.

In the first quarter of the year, venture funding to VC-backed crypto and blockchain startups plummeted 82% year to year, dropping from $9.1 billion in Q1 of 2022 to only $1.7 billion, per Crunchbase data.

That is its lowest point since late 2020.

Deal flow also continued to drop, as only 333 deals were completed in the first quarter — down from 369 in the previous quarter and a sharp drop from the more than 500 announced in Q1 2022.

A big investment in Hashkey could help shake up those numbers a little. The firm has been an active backer of startups in the blockchain and crypto space — as well as fintech and gaming.

Hashkey has made more than 90 deals, however, its pace has cooled over the past two years, according to Crunchbase data. In 2021 — the height of the market — Hashkey participated in 34 funding deals, per Crunchbase.

That number dropped to only 13 last year and thus far only two this year.