HashKey Holding released its interim results for the first half of 2026 on Aug. 27, reporting revenue growth, a narrower adjusted loss and a larger contribution from institutional trading even as the global crypto market contracted in the first six months of the year.
Total revenue for the period came in at HK$343 million, up 20.6% from a year earlier. Gross profit reached HK$208 million, up 12.5%, while gross margin improved on a sequential basis to 60.6%. Adjusted loss narrowed from HK$398 million in the same period last year to HK$315 million, a 21% reduction.
The interim report pointed to three broad changes: rising revenue, shrinking losses and a changing business mix.
Institutional trading became a larger driver
Revenue from the exchange facilitation business reached HK$268 million in the first half, up 38.6% year over year. On the volume side, total platform trading volume rose 31.8% to HK$282.2 billion. Institutional clients contributed HK$231.5 billion of that figure, up 58.8% from a year earlier and equal to 82% of the total.
The article said one of the market’s earlier concerns about HashKey had been that the business was retail-driven and heavily dependent on market conditions. This set of results, it argued, showed a shift in the company’s revenue engine from retail to institutional flows. While the broader crypto market shrank in the first half, institutional trading volume on the platform still posted a sharp increase.
Citi initiated coverage on HashKey on Aug. 4 with a “Buy/High Risk” rating and a target price of HK$5.60. Based on the share price of HK$1.85 at the time, that implied 203% upside. According to the article, one of the key arguments in Citi’s report was that the policy dividend from Hong Kong’s onshore compliant market had not yet been fully reflected, and that HashKey, with more than 75% market share, stood to benefit the most.
Tokenization and on-chain services posted the fastest growth
The report highlighted tokenization as the standout in the on-chain services segment. Total on-chain real-world asset, or RWA, value reached HK$2.68 billion, up 167.8% year over year. During the period, HashKey launched what the article described as Hong Kong’s first real-estate RWA and first regulated silver RWA token.
The article said that pace of growth stood out under current market conditions and suggested that HashKey Chain, positioned as an L2 network for RWAs, was moving from the infrastructure-building stage toward a phase of attracting assets on-chain. Real estate and silver were presented as two key categories in physical-asset tokenization, covering property and commodities.
Even so, the contribution of this business line to total revenue remains relatively small. Its growth rate, however, was the fastest among the company’s three major business segments. The article added that if commercialization of tokenization continues to accelerate, especially with support from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s tokenized bond pilot and the rollout of HKDAP, on-chain services could become an important growth engine for HashKey over the next two to three quarters.
Expansion moves outlined a broader regional and global plan
HashKey’s interim report period, and the weeks that followed it, also included a series of geographic and strategic moves.
- In July, the company announced a proposed acquisition of 100% of Singapore’s Asia Pacific Exchange, or APEX. APEX holds both a Recognized Market Operator license and a Recognized Clearing House license. If completed, the deal would give HashKey trading and clearing infrastructure across both Hong Kong and Singapore.
- In April, HashKey made a strategic investment in Vietnam’s CAEX and entered a technology partnership to jointly build a local institution-grade compliant trading platform.
- In May, HashKey Capital led SignalPlus’ $40 million Series B+ round, targeting institution-grade derivatives trading technology.
- By late July, HashKey had completed an app merger that combined its Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Bermuda sites into a single entry point.
On the partnership front, HashKey deepened fiat channel cooperation with JPMorgan and DBS Bank. It also worked with Canton and Morpho to explore institution-grade on-chain applications, launched the Ethereum Application Group, or EAG, and joined the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s expert group on tokenized bonds.
The article cited founder Xiao Feng’s description of the company’s roadmap: from a digital-asset trading platform to a digital-asset financial market, from crypto-native assets to RWA and tokenized assets, with the end goal of building a new generation of financial infrastructure that connects pools of assets and pools of capital.
Losses remain, but several indicators improved
HashKey is still loss-making. Adjusted net loss was HK$315 million, down 21% from a year earlier, and the company remains short of break-even. For full-year 2025, the company recorded a loss of about HK$1.087 billion. Assets under management fell from HK$7.2 billion at the time of the annual report to HK$5.94 billion at the interim reporting date, while asset management revenue was HK$38.84 million. The stock price also declined from HK$6.67 on its listing debut and touched an intrayear low of HK$3.25.
Still, the article argued that these figures can be read differently in context. HashKey is in its first full half-year of operation after listing, and it is operating against a backdrop of broad market contraction. Within that environment, the company delivered 20.6% revenue growth, lifted gross margin to 60.6% on a sequential basis and increased institutional trading volume by 58.8%.
Soochow Securities projected revenue of HK$782 million, HK$1.211 billion and HK$2.338 billion for 2025 through 2027, implying growth rates of 11%, 55% and 90%, respectively. The article said that if the HK$343 million revenue pace recorded in the first half is maintained or improved in the second half, full-year revenue would likely exceed Soochow Securities’ HK$1.211 billion forecast.
The article concluded that for a compliant digital-asset infrastructure company that has been listed for eight months, remains loss-making, but is still growing revenue and trading volume against the trend, the key issue for the market is not whether it is profitable right now, but how quickly it is moving toward profitability. In the article’s view, this interim report showed that pace to be faster than many had expected.