Hong Kong blockchain gaming firm Animoca weighing 2025-26 IPO, founder says

Hong Kong-based blockchain video gaming firm Animoca Brands is weighing options for a public listing, possibly in Hong Kong or the Middle East, as early as late next year.

"It's contingent on many factors, but we feel confident that we will go public," Siu said in a statement to the Post on Thursday. "And if that happens, it's likely in the second half of 2025."

Siu is considering listing in Animoca's home city of Hong Kong or a Middle Eastern market, he told technology news publication The Information, which first reported the initial public offering plans on Wednesday. Dubai has become a hotspot for crypto business.

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Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, speaks during a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) in Doha, Qatar, on May 24, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, speaks during a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) in Doha, Qatar, on May 24, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg>

However, a possible IPO is still in its early planning stages, and the company has not yet hired an adviser, Siu told the Post.

Returning to the public market - after delisting in Australia in March 2020 amid scrutiny of its cryptocurrency activities - is about "bringing more attention to Web3", the entrepreneur said.

"If you consider what companies like Coinbase have done for US attention in Web3, it's a good example of a successful case to bring more focus on Web3," Siu said. "We hope to achieve something similar in due course."

As a Hong Kong-based company, Siu said he hopes a future IPO would also bring more attention to Asian markets.

Founded in 2014, Animoca Brands has become a major investor in the Web3 ecosystem, boasting a vast portfolio of more than 400 blockchain start-ups. It is also known for its metaverse platform The Sandbox, which gained popularity at the peak of non-fungible token (NFTs) hype and the metaverse boom 2021.

In its last publicly announced valuation, Animoca was worth US$5.9 billion after a US$75 million funding round in July 2022. Its investors include HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, Singapore's state fund Temasek Holdings, and Saudi Arabia's government-backed smart city project Neom Company, which last year put US$50 million into Animoca.

Animoca's fortunes have risen this year along with the value of cryptocurrencies after bitcoin hit an all-time high. Siu previously told the Post this would have a "material impact" on the company this year. Much of Animoca's financial holdings are in crypto assets, which it divides into liquid and off-balance sheet reserves, including Sand, the native token of The Sandbox.

The company had a combined cash and stablecoin balance of US$291 million by the end of March, according to an unaudited financial report it published in April. That was up from US$194 million in April 2023.

In late 2022, Hong Kong unveiled a policy shift meant to support the virtual asset industry and attract business to the city. Its mandatory licensing regime that took effect in June last year has been seen by many as unusually onerous, however, owing to high compliance costs relative to limited opportunities in the market.

A handful of crypto exchanges, most with connections to mainland China, where commercial crypto activity is banned, recently withdrew their applications.

Siu, though, remains optimistic. Recent developments do not diminish Hong Kong's status as a crypto hub "because not many jurisdictions even have a regime for it", he said.

"Hong Kong is balancing the requirements, and we know that they're very serious about this," he added. "But this is part of the evolution."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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