Recently, the hot trend of crypto companies in the US stock market has not only pushed up the stock prices of listed crypto companies but also stimulated many crypto companies to actively prepare for listing in the United States.
A recent online article listed 13 potential companies waiting to go public in the United States. Most of them are exchanges, but one company stands out: Animoca Brands.
In fact, several months ago, I saw news suggesting that Animoca Brands was preparing to go public in the US. Now, seeing this article, I estimate that the news is most likely true.
Readers familiar with the crypto ecosystem know that this is a company focused on investing in Non-Fungible Tokens and blockchain games, having invested in many classic projects, with a very forward-thinking and ahead-of-its-time understanding of the crypto ecosystem.
More importantly, this is a company rooted in Hong Kong.
In recent years, Hong Kong has been making great strides in promoting Web 3 development, and even in the recently globally trending stablecoin field, Hong Kong's legislative pace is in no way inferior to the United States.
Facing such a warm atmosphere and being in such an enthusiastic environment, a local Hong Kong company like Animoca Brands should, in theory, choose to list in Hong Kong when it has favorable timing, location, and human conditions.
But why does it still lean towards the United States?
This inevitably reminds me of the three most discussed places in the crypto ecosystem development in recent years:
Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.
For Singapore, my impression is quite good, but I have never believed it to be an ideal country for the current stage of crypto ecosystem development, because the development of the crypto ecosystem requires value protection and social environment tolerance.
A government as strong and all-encompassing as Singapore's is inherently different from the "wild," "fierce," and "disruptive" character of the current stage of the crypto ecosystem. These two will ultimately never come together, unless the crypto ecosystem has completely integrated into our lives and become a technology recognized by everyone. Only then might Singapore cautiously accept that ecosystem.
So when the Singapore government recently introduced a series of regulatory policies leading to a sharp downturn in its entire crypto environment, I was not surprised at all.
As for Hong Kong, whether from personal sentiment or based on a historical review, I believe it completely possesses the genes that the current stage of the crypto ecosystem should have and could potentially become a hotbed for crypto ecosystem development. Hong Kong's originally inherent "proactively non-interventionist" genes and the internal conditions of a financial free port are, to some extent, the most suitable for the crypto ecosystem in the world.
Otherwise, crypto enterprises like Tether would not have chosen Hong Kong back then, and it was precisely Hong Kong's special conditions that helped it develop rapidly in the early stages.
Unfortunately, Hong Kong later became increasingly cautious and hesitant, making it difficult to see new crypto enterprise giants, and even original giants like Tether have moved their main business activities out of Hong Kong.
Now, if even the few remaining companies like Animoca Brands choose to go public elsewhere, it further indicates that Hong Kong's future in this regard is worth noting.
A while ago, when the stablecoin regulations were passed in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, a legislator warned that Hong Kong must not repeat the same mistake this time: starting early but missing the opportunity.
I feel that the legislator's words were more filled with worry and helplessness.
Historically, Hong Kong once created glorious achievements. A certain governor, at a time when the British mainland was enthusiastic about nationalization and planned intervention, withstood pressure to promote economic liberalization in Hong Kong, transforming it into a world financial center.
These measures not only created Hong Kong's prosperity but also showed the world that Chinese people, under the conditions of rule of law and market economy, can restrain that arbitrarily intervening hand, and even on a tiny piece of land, can create a miracle that shocks the world.
And this is precisely the core and fundamental principle of crypto ecosystem development.
