Hong Kong’s HashKey to launch $500 million digital treasury fund

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(Reuters) – HashKey Group will launch its inaugural Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) focused fund with an initial target size of $500 million, the Hong Kong-based virtual asset firm said on Monday.

The multi-currency fund’s DAT strategy refers to public companies accumulating cryptocurrency assets to capitalise on higher token prices and a softening regulatory environment.

The strategy has surged in popularity this year as many companies seek to replicate the success of U.S.-based Strategy, a software company that began accumulating bitcoin in 2020 and held more than $63 billion in cryptocurrency as of June.

Strategy copycats have increased their bitcoin holdings to nearly 100,000 bitcoin collectively, according to Standard Chartered.

The trend of DAT adoption is not happening only in the U.S. but in Hong Kong, Japan and many other equity markets, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao told a bitcoin conference in Hong Kong last month.

Through investing in and operating top-tier DAT projects globally, HashKey aims to advance crypto asset standardisation and accelerate the development of a sustainable Web3 ecosystem, it said in a statement. Web3 refers to a version of the internet that is decentralised and operates on blockchain technology.

“HashKey will build a diversified portfolio by initiating and investing in a range of DAT projects focused on mainstream crypto assets, with an initial emphasis on Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystem projects,” it said.

Founded in 2018, HashKey Group offers a wide range of digital asset financial services including asset management, brokerage, tokenization, as well as running Hong Kong’s largest licensed crypto exchange.

(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Summer Zhen; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Susan Fenton)