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Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands plans to list in New York as Donald Trump’s light-touch regulation of digital assets offers a “unique moment” to enter the world’s largest capital market, says the boss of the crypto investor.
An announcement could come “soon”, Yat Siu told the Financial Times, with the company examining several shareholding structures. The listing was unlikely to depend on market conditions, the executive chair added.
The group raised money in a series of funding rounds in 2022 that gave it a reported private valuation of just under $6bn. Since then prices for equities and digital assets including bitcoin have surged.
Trump’s pledge to make the US the global centre for digital assets and softer regulatory approach have lured companies to the country, including Deribit, the world’s largest cryptocurrency options exchange.
Bitcoin has jumped more than 50 per cent to above $102,000 since Trump’s November election. The president has dropped a number of digital asset enforcement cases in a marked change of approach to his predecessor Joe Biden.
Under Biden, dozens of lawsuits and criminal cases were launched against digital asset companies, pushing many to steer clear of the US.
Siu said the clampdown cooled innovation in the US, giving overseas companies such as Animoca that have invested in blockchain-based video gaming and crypto a rare competitive advantage.
A year ago Animoca would not have considered a US listing, but now it was “a very important part of the roadmap”, Siu added.
“If the US didn’t do what they did with the regulators [under Biden], we probably would have competitors in the US. Normally we’d be fighting with some giant or something. It’s the biggest market, so we should go there, right?
“It’s a unique moment in time. I feel like it would be one heck of a wasted opportunity if we didn’t at least try.”
Some of the companies in Animoca’s portfolio were also exploring a US listing this year or in early 2026, including US crypto exchange Kraken, Siu added.
Animoca has been considering a return to public markets since last year. It was delisted by the stock exchange in Australia in 2020 because of concerns over governance and the legal status of some of its crypto assets.
Since then it has expanded its business in digital asset projects and advisory services and built up its investment arm, which has stakes in OpenSea, the leading marketplace for non-fungible tokens, Kraken and blockchain software group Consensys.
It also expects gaming companies to benefit from the expected arrival of new consoles and releases such as Grand Theft Auto 6, which offer the chance to incorporate crypto-based payments into gaming that could boost revenues at Animoca’s investments.
Animoca’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were $97mn from revenues of $314mn for the year to December, up from $34mn on turnover of $280mn a year before, although the figures were unaudited.
The company, which has investments in more than 540 companies, also had nearly $300mn in cash and stablecoins and $538mn of digital assets on its balance sheet.
“We think we’re the biggest non-financial services crypto firm,” Siu said. “I think going public is a way to tell the world that ‘hey there’s a business that is in crypto that isn’t doing the typical crypto stuff’.”