Recently, there were rumors that "Hong Kong residents will be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies freely and legally from June 1", which has made Hong Kong crypto concept coins start to rise rapidly. Looking at gains over the past seven days, Conflux (CFX) has led gains of more than 400% so far, Cocos-BCX (COCOS) and SelfKey (KEY) are both up more than 200%, Alchemy Pay (ACH) is up more than 140%, and Filecoin (FIL) is up more than 70%. Behind these surges is a harbinger of a shift in crypto investor confidence.
While the above-mentioned rumors of Hong Kong's crypto policy have proven to be misleading, in fact, the crypto policy that Hong Kong will implement on June 1 is related to the licensing regime for virtual asset service providers. However, compared to the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken, BUSD issuer Paxos and Binance, Hong Kong's continued embrace of Web3 since last year has led crypto investors to bet on Hong Kong and other Eastern crypto-friendly regions.
Last week, Conflux Network announced that it would partner with China Telecom to pilot blockchain-enabled SIM cards in Hong Kong. The gratifying rise in the price of Conflux has also largely contributed to the Hong Kong concept coin and the Chinese concept coin becoming hot topics in the crypto field. Today, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) publicly launched a consultation on the proposed requirements applicable to operators of virtual asset trading platforms. The consultation paper mentions that licensed platforms will be allowed to offer qualified large virtual assets to retail customers, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others.
Sun said that Huobi Global has applied for a cryptocurrency trading license in Hong Kong and will be able to expand its services and products to Hong Kong customers, offering a wider range of cryptocurrency trading and investment options. In addition, Huobi will also launch a new exchange in Hong Kong, Huobi Hong Kong. This action has become an important symbol of the white-hot situation in Hong Kong.
It should be noted that the current concept of Hong Kong is not clear, and the leading logic of several so-called Hong Kong concept projects is not clear, and crypto investors need to be wary of potential scams. Before the introduction of encryption policies in Hong Kong this year, ChainCatcher inventoried important local encryption projects (core business or team is mainly in Hong Kong) through the encrypted data platform RootData, covering CeFi, DeFi, games/metaverse, infrastructure, tools and other fields.
At present, there are about 50 local crypto projects in Hong Kong, nearly half of which are distributed in the CeFi, CEX fields, followed by mainly in the game/metaverse field.
CeFi
1. Amber Group, founded in 2017, is a digital asset platform that provides a full range of digital asset services, including investment, financing and trading. The company serves more than 1,000 institutional clients and individual investors worldwide. The company has completed four rounds of financing, raising a total of $628 million. Major investors include Distributed Capital, Tiger Global, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Sequoia China, etc.
2. Babel Finance was founded in 2018 Babel Finance is a global crypto financial institution that provides professional crypto financial services to high-net-worth individuals and institutional clients around the world. The company's businesses cover cryptocurrency lending, asset management, prime brokerage, private banking, mining services, and investment. The company has completed five rounds of financing, raising a total of $120 million. Major investors include Dragonfly, BAI Capital, Sequoia China, Circle Ventures and others.
3. BitMEX (Token: BMEX) Founded in 2014, BitMEX is one of the world's largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, known for its deep liquidity and professional trading dashboard. In 2016, BitMEX launched perpetual leveraged swap contracts on Bitcoin, allowing traders to trade Bitcoin futures with up to 100x leverage and no expiration date. This product has helped BitMEX become one of the most traded bitcoin exchanges in the world. The company has a fully diluted market capitalization of $313 million and the financing is not disclosed.
4. Hex Trust was founded in 2018 Hex Trust is a licensed and insurance provider that provides bank-grade digital asset custody services. The company provides custody, DeFi, brokerage and financing solutions to financial institutions, digital asset organizations, enterprises, and private clients through its proprietary platform, Hex Safe. Hex Trust has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Italy and Vietnam. The company has completed two rounds of financing, raising a total of $94 million. Major investors include Animoca Brands, HashKey Capital, Protocol Labs, Distributed Capital, Wintermute, and others.
5. CoinFLEX (Token: FLEX) Founded in 2019, CoinFLEX provides a platform for institutional and retail investors to earn and trade cryptocurrencies. CoinFLEX's innovative solutions such as flexUSD (interest-earning stablecoin) and AMM+
6. HashKey Group is an Asian end-to-end digital asset financial services group, founded in 2018. The group offers new investment opportunities and solutions to institutions, family offices, funds and professional investors in the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem, providing a complete ecosystem from venture capital to custody, technology and trading. HashKey Group operates in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, and has partnerships with fintech and blockchain solution providers, academic institutions and associations. Its projects are HashKey Me, a multi-chain DID wallet, HashKey DID, a Web3 identity data aggregator, and HashKey Capital, which focuses on blockchain investment.
7. Xinhuo Technology was founded in 2018 with Du Jun, the co-founder of Huobi, as the CEO. Xinhuo Technology is a cutting-edge technology company empowered by the joint concept of "finance + technology". By building a blockchain and virtual asset ecosystem, New Fire Technology is committed to becoming Asia's leading one-stop compliant virtual asset service platform.
8. Founded in 2017, Skynet Trading is a trading and investment company in the digital asset market. The company has invested in nearly 20 projects, including Secret Network, zkLink, Clearpool and others.
Challenge
9.Linear Finance (token: LINA), founded in 2020, is a cross-chain-compatible synthetic asset protocol on BNB Chain, allowing users to gain synthetic exposure to various assets, including cryptocurrencies, commodities, and market indices.
Market Cap: $39,324,25
Financing: 2 cumulative financings, with a total amount of US$1.8 million. The main investors are Huobi Ventures, NGC Capital, Hashed and others.
10. MANTRA TOKEN: OM Founded in 2020, MANTRA is a vertically integrated and compliant blockchain ecosystem. The ecosystem includes: MANTRA nodes, which provide blockchain infrastructure-as-a-service businesses, including retail staking, institutional delegation, node management, and white-label validator operations; MANTRA Chain, a protocol for regulated assets in the Cosmos ecosystem; and MANTRA Finance, a globally regulated DeFi platform. At present, MANTRA has launched three chains: Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon. Its market cap is $27,363,027. It has raised 1 cumulative amount of financing, and its investors include LD Capital, Waterdrop Capital, GenBlock Capital, etc.
Wombat Exchange Token: WOM Founded in 2021, Wombat Exchange is a multi-chain stablecoin trading platform with an open liquidity pool, low slippage, and unilateral staking. Its market cap is $7,187,178. It has raised two times in total, with a total amount of $5.2 million, with investors including Shima Capital, Jump Crypto, Wormhole and others.
NFT
12. Ucollex Founded in 2021, Ucollex is an NFT platform focused on art and pop culture collectibles. The platform does not require buyers to have a digital wallet and offers exclusive content, artist interviews, 3D art, and virtual reality experiences. It raised 1 total of $10 million, led by Animoca Brands and MCP IPX One Fund, a subsidiary of Japanese investment firm MCP Asset Management.
13、BNV. Founded in 2021 BNV.ME ME is a fashion NFT sales platform that brings fashion to Web 3.0 through 3D product creation, NFT sales, and future wearability. BNV aims to be a gateway for fashion brands and designers into the virtual world. It has raised 1 total of $4 million in total financing, with investors including Animoca Brands, Sparkle Ventures, ArkStream Capital and others.
14.MADworld (Token: UMAD)
Founded in 2021, MADworld offers an NFT origin platform and NFT marketplace that uses blockchain technology to secure artists, artworks, creators, and content that enter the untraversed multiverse. MADworld supports NFT minting to verify ownership and provenance of physical art, collectibles, and products, as well as original content developed from live concerts, sporting events, artist showdowns, and other creative expressions. MADworld aims to give creators full control over their NFT strategy, supporting them by permanently maximizing the revenue and impact of their intellectual property.
Market Cap: $4,150,619
Financing: 1 cumulative financing, the total amount of financing is 6 million US dollars, the main investors are Animoca Brands,
Master Ventures 、Avatar Ventures 、Chiron Partners 等。
Gaming/Metaverse
15、Animoca Brands
Founded in 2014 by Yat Siu, Animoca Brands is a Web3 game software company and venture capital firm with a portfolio of more than 380 and is one of the blockchain game investment giants.
Animoca Brands aims to provide digital property rights to gamers and internet users around the world, thereby creating a new asset class, a play-to-earn economy, and a fairer digital framework that contributes to building an open metaverse. It has subsidiaries such as The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, and GAMEE.
Financing: Raised 10 times with a total amount of $758 million, with major investors including Sequoia China, Liberty City Ventures, Dragonfly, 10T Holdings, HashKey Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Huobi Ventures, etc.
16、The Sandbox （代币：SAND）
Founded in 2012 and one of the leading metaverse concept projects, The Sandbox is a decentralized, community-driven gaming ecosystem where creators can share and monetize voxel assets and gaming experiences on Ethereum.
Market Cap: $1,205,666,592
Financing: 2 cumulative financings, with a total amount of $95.1 million, major investors SoftBank Vision Fund, Animoca Brands, Bluepool Capital, Polygon Labs, Liberty City Ventures, Samsung Next, etc.
17.MOBOX (Token: MBOX)
MOBOX was founded in 2020 as a gaming metaverse on BNB Chain, which combines auto-optimized DeFi revenue mining and gaming NFTs to create a GameFi metaverse called MOMOverse.
Market Cap: $104,618,934
Financing: 2 cumulative financings, the amount of financing is not disclosed, investors are Animoca Brands, Binance Labs.
18.Kingdomverse (token: KING)
Kingdomverse is a mobile gaming metaverse, an Ethereum NFT two-layer scaling solution Immutable X ecological project, which consists of various mobile games that create a gamified social hub for mobile gamers to socialize, form guilds, build their own kingdoms, and even fight and conquer other lands through dynamic open-world mobile metaverse, NFT and token connections.
Financing: 1 cumulative financing with a total financing amount of $3.6 million.
infrastructure
19、DTTD
Founded in 2021 as a social wallet for NFTs, DTTD is building a suite of services and tools for crypto natives, crypto newbies, businesses, and anyone with an internet connection to manage all their NFTs in one place.
Financing: 1 cumulative financing with a total amount of $2 million, invested by Animoca Brands.
tool
20、Sprout
Founded in 2019, Sprout provides equity and token management solutions that help companies manage stocks, employee stock option plans (ESOPs), tokens, fundraising, and investors in real time on one platform, enabling teams to design, launch, and track stock options and token vesting. Sprout's Folium product enables organizations to track and manage all relevant wallet transactions and token investments on any blockchain.
Financing: Raised 2 times in total, with a total amount of $3 million, with major investors including Sequoia India and Old Fashion Research.
An active Web3 investor in Hong Kong
In addition to the above 20 local crypto projects, there are also active Web3 investment institutions such as HashKey Capital, EVG, Alliance DAO, Newman Capital, Master Ventures, and Antalpha Ventures.
Among them, HashKey Capital, founded in 2018, has invested 219 times so far, and has made 55 investments in the past year, occupying the top 5 most active investment institutions in Web3 in the past year. Its investment areas mainly cover infrastructure, DeFi, CeFi and other fields. Representative projects include Animoca Brands, Aztec Network, Celestia, Blockdaemon, Mina, etc.
Spartan Group, also founded in 2018, is also very active, with a cumulative investment of 151 times so far, 49 times in the past year, mainly covering DeFi, infrastructure, games and other fields, representative projects include Animoca Brands, BitDAO, Celestia, ConsenSys, Polygon, Sui and so on.
Founded in 2020, Alliance DAO has invested in 112 portfolios including Aztec Network, STEPN, Ribbon Finance, 1inch Network, and more.