Hong Kong Stock Exchange Cracks Down On Crypto Treasury Firms: Bloomberg

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) has rejected multiple attempts by listed companies to make crypto treasuries their core business.

That’s according to a Bloomberg report that said Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. has challenged the plans of at least five such firms in recent months. The story cited sources familiar with the matter, who said that transitioning into a pure-play crypto accumulator is currently forbidden by the bourse. 

Companies Are Prohibited From Having Large Liquid Holdings

The exchange is blocking the applications as part of a rule that prohibits firms from holding large reserves of liquid assets, which is crypto in this case. The aim is to prevent the listing of shell companies that effectively use their status as a listed entity for money.

According to HKEX, all listing applications must operate “viable and sustainable” businesses. To date, none of the proposed DAT firms have been given the green light by HKEX, the report said. 

Other Regions Are Also Blocking Crypto Treasury Firms

It’s not just HKEX that is clamping down on companies trying to become digital asset treasury (DAT) firms. 

In Australia, ASX Ltd. has banned firms holding 50% or more of their balance sheet in cash or cash-like assets, which makes it impossible to adopt a crypto treasury model.

Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange rejected an application from Jetking Infotrain to list shares for a preferential allotment, which it said it would use some of the proceeds to invest in crypto.

DAT Firms Under Pressure As Stock And Crypto Prices Fall

The clampdowns come as DAT firms face increasing pressure, with both share prices and the crypto assets they hoard losing value.

The largest of the companies and the pioneer of the DAT trend is Michael Saylor’s Strategy. It started buying Bitcoin back in 2020 and has since become the biggest corporate holder of BTC, with 640,418 coins on its balance sheet, data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows. 

That is after the firm announced that it purchased another 168 BTC earlier this week for around $18.8 million at an average price of $112,051 per coin.

Top 20 corporate BTC holders (Source: Bitcoin Treasuries)

Since Strategy started buying Bitcoin, other companies, such as Japan-based Metaplanet, have started doing the same. There have also been companies that have stocked up on smaller cryptos, including Ethereum. Bitmine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming are currently the biggest ETH treasury firms in the world. 

However, all of those firms have seen their stock prices fall in the past month.

Strategy’s shares have fallen over 10% while shares of Metaplanet and BitMine have plunged more than 28% and 5%, respectively. SharpLink Gaming’s shares have slid more than 13%.

Bitcoin has lost more than 3% in the past month and Ethereum is down more than 7%.

Investors Lose $17 Billion Piling Into DATs

Investors took a hit from the decline in DAT share prices. A recent report from 10X Research found that investors lost an estimated $17 billion by buying the firms’ shares.

10X Research said DAT firms “conjured billions in paper wealth” by issuing shares that were valued much higher than the underlying crypto they held.

“With NAVs now having fully round-tripped, retail investors have lost billions — and many likely lack the conviction to keep adding to their positions,” it said. ”The illusion vanished.”