“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.
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.
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.
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.”
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