The main stage for the coin hoarding game is in the United States, while Hong Kong is more suitable for linking and fundraising.
Author | Xie Zhaoqing, Tencent News "Periscope"
The financial circle in Hong Kong is rewriting its narrative, with the cryptocurrency sector, once distanced from the traditional financial sphere, becoming mainstream in this new narrative. As the concepts of stablecoins and RWA are gaining traction, the wind of DAT has blown from the United States to Hong Kong.
DAT, short for Digital Asset Treasury, typically refers to companies or entities that hold and manage cryptocurrencies in the crypto space. In the current context, DAT often corresponds to publicly listed companies that purchase tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana on the open market. Industry insiders refer to this action as "hoarding coins," making these tokens core assets of the company, which then causes the stock price of the listed company to fluctuate with the price of the coins. In the traditional financial sector, this phenomenon is referred to as "coin-stock linkage."
"Coin-stock linkage has been a hot topic in the Hong Kong secondary market and the crypto space recently," said a representative from a U.S. listed company, which has already accumulated a significant amount of Bitcoin.
On August 27 alone, he participated in eight events in Hong Kong, most of which involved topics related to coin-stock linkage, including the founding ceremony of the "Hong Kong Digital Asset Listed Companies Association" held at the Four Seasons Hotel, a forum hosted by New Fire Technology at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and a forum at the University of Hong Kong featuring Binance founder Zhao Changpeng—these events all touched on coin-stock linkage.
Zhao Changpeng stated on-site that some companies' finance departments, listed companies, and even state-owned enterprises and central enterprises cannot directly purchase Bitcoin and other digital currencies, but through the DAT model, these companies can indirectly hold Bitcoin and other digital currencies, which is the significance of the DAT model. He also believes that this group is actually very large, much larger than the crypto space. He also revealed that Binance Group is actively participating in similar projects.
Tencent News "Periscope" has learned that a fund in Hong Kong, which has received investment from state-owned enterprises, has been actively planning coin-stock linkage projects recently. A financial professional in Hong Kong told Tencent News "Periscope" that because state-owned enterprise funds cannot directly invest in crypto-related funds, they can buy stocks, "there are currently no restrictions on holding stocks of listed companies that own Bitcoin."
Public data shows that member companies of the Hong Kong Digital Asset Listed Companies Association, such as Boya Interactive and Huajian Medical, have already accumulated a significant amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum through the open market.
A representative from a listed company at the founding conference of the "Hong Kong Digital Asset Listed Companies Association" told Tencent News "Periscope" that their company also has plans to hoard coins in the future. According to their understanding, many member units in the association are also gradually launching similar plans. Public data shows that the association has a total of 49 member units, including 9 U.S. listed companies, two Shenzhen GEM companies, and the rest are Hong Kong listed companies.
The Coin-Stock Linkage Craze in the Chinese Community: Zhao Changpeng, Li Lin, and Other Crypto Tycoons Join the "Coin Hoarding" Army
Coin-stock linkage has already sparked a craze in the U.S. stock market more than six months ago. U.S. listed companies have been buying Bitcoin or Ethereum on the open market, making the company a DAT specifically for hoarding coins, and their stock prices have soared alongside Bitcoin, resulting in gains in the traditional stock market.
American billionaire Michael Saylor is a pioneer and success story of this model. In 2020, as the founder and chairman of the U.S. listed software company Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy), he publicly announced the inclusion of Bitcoin in its balance sheet.
His operation was very simple: issue bonds or stocks—raise money to buy Bitcoin—rely on the price increase of coins combined with the "premium" of the company's stock to generate excess returns, i.e., stock price increases. During this period, as the stock price continued to rise, Strategy continued to issue bonds or stocks for financing and bought more Bitcoin, repeating this cycle.
Although Michael Saylor has been "calling the shots" since 2020, it was not until 2024, when Wall Street traders flooded into the market, treating this stock as a representative of the world's largest Bitcoin holder, that they began to build positions.
Industry insiders explain that 2024 marks the early stage of a bull market following Bitcoin's fourth halving (April 20), with Bitcoin's price rising from about $45,000 at the beginning of the year to a peak of about $103,000 within the year (December 2024). MicroStrategy's stock price is highly correlated with its Bitcoin holdings.
Public data shows that since first buying Bitcoin in August 2022, Strategy's stock price has surged approximately 30 times, with a current market value close to $100 billion, comparable to Starbucks—this far exceeds Bitcoin's own 11-fold increase during the same period. As of the second quarter, Strategy holds approximately 630,000 Bitcoins.
This has also allowed early traders who participated in building positions in Strategy's stock to achieve astonishing returns.
Other companies have begun to compete to replicate Strategy's strategy. A report from crypto data company Architect Partners states that in the U.S. stock market, a total of 90 listed companies had Bitcoin on their balance sheets in the first quarter, and by the second quarter, this number had risen to 142. Meanwhile, in the first half of 2025, 61 U.S. listed companies announced plans to raise $30.6 billion for purchasing Bitcoin and other digital currencies, most of which occurred in the second quarter.
"This is an unprecedented large-scale buying action in the crypto space," said a representative from a U.S. listed company deeply involved in the crypto sector in Hong Kong. His company also holds a significant amount of Bitcoin.
This trend has begun to spread to Asia, such as Japan. Public data shows that Japan's most well-known imitator is Metaplanet Inc, dubbed the "Asian version of Strategy." Metaplanet was originally a budget hotel company that struggled to achieve profitability in Japan, but it transformed and first bought Bitcoin in May 2024. As of September 3, the company holds 20,000 Bitcoins, ranking sixth globally in terms of Bitcoin holdings.
Compared to Japan's aggressiveness, the coin hoarding craze in Hong Kong is just beginning. Public data shows that the listed company in the Hong Kong stock market with the most Bitcoin holdings is Boya Interactive, which held 3,670 Bitcoins as of the end of August.
Recently, listed companies including Huajian Medical, Huaxing Capital, Yunfeng Financial, and Coolpad have announced plans to purchase Ethereum, Binance Coin, Bitcoin, and other tokens as assets on their balance sheets. Prior to this, only a few companies in the Hong Kong stock market, such as Meitu and Guofu Quantum, had held Bitcoin and other digital currency assets, but in small amounts.
Data provided by Zhang Huachen, president of the Hong Kong Digital Asset Listed Companies Association, shows that currently, if only calculating the market value of digital assets held by Hong Kong listed companies and the market value of digital assets involved in compliance license applications and operations, the total does not exceed $2 billion.
Tencent News "Periscope" has learned that among the 49 member units of the Hong Kong Digital Asset Listed Companies Association, there are 38 Hong Kong listed companies, most of which have ideas for hoarding coins or expanding hoarding plans, including Guofu Quantum. The total market value of these member units is approximately $20 billion. However, Tencent News "Periscope" has not yet learned about the specific hoarding plans of these companies.
Zhang Huachen, who has been involved in the crypto space for many years, is relatively optimistic. He believes that listed companies are the best medium to bridge traditional finance and digital asset liquidity, and there is still significant exploration space for coin-stock linkage between the current holdings of listed companies and their market value.
Compared to DAT companies, the enthusiasm for hoarding coins in Hong Kong's funding sector is even higher. Zhao Changpeng's family office YZi Labs has already begun to lay out in Asia, including the Hong Kong market. Public data shows that the assets managed by this family office exceed $10 billion.
Recently, the head of this family office, Ella Zhang, has been frequently conducting business in Asia, hoping to increase the hoarding projects for BNB and future ecological construction, including announcing support for a fund company named B strategy to raise $1 billion for "hoarding coins" at the end of August. This is also the first "BNB" version of a DAT company supported by Zhao Changpeng's family in Asia, and so far, it is the largest funding effort they have made globally.
Earlier, YZi Labs also announced support for Huaxing Capital's $100 million hoarding Binance Coin (BNB) project, hoping the latter could become the "BNB strategy" in the Hong Kong stock market. However, after Huaxing Capital announced this plan on August 22, its stock price rose slightly from HKD 8.6 per share to HKD 9.14 before starting to decline.
Tencent News "Periscope" has learned that the main members of the founding team of the B strategy fund are based in Hong Kong, but the specific listed company target for this "hoarding coins" project has not yet been announced, and it is very likely to be a U.S. listed company.
A source familiar with YZi Labs told Tencent News "Periscope" that many people (or teams) in the Hong Kong financial circle have approached YZi Labs for cooperation recently, and it is understood that there may be hundreds of them, with more projects likely to be launched gradually.
As a funding party, YZi Labs provides funds to asset management companies like Huaxing Capital and B strategy, which then use their listed company platforms to buy tokens or seek a listed company as the main body, which then buys tokens.
Meanwhile, one of the three major Chinese giants in the crypto space, Li Lin, founder of Huobi, who is already based in Hong Kong, has also begun to prepare for "hoarding coins" projects.
On August 27, Li Lin's Hong Kong listed company New Fire Technology announced that it would invest $500 million to launch a "hoarding coins" project, with no upper limit on the project scale. On the afternoon of August 28, New Fire Technology CEO Weng Xiaoqi revealed to Tencent News "Periscope" that the project is very popular in the Hong Kong market, with investor subscriptions exceeding $500 million.
In addition, Tencent News "Periscope" has learned that active Chinese investors in the crypto space, such as Shen Bo and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng, have also begun to get involved in "hoarding coins" projects.
The Main Stage for the Coin Hoarding Game is in the United States, While Hong Kong is More Suitable for Linking and Fundraising
"The hoarding craze in Hong Kong is not on the asset side, i.e., the listed company targets, but on the funding side, i.e., the funds for purchasing Bitcoin and other digital currencies," said a financial professional in Hong Kong who is planning a hoarding project to Tencent News "Periscope." Many individuals in Hong Kong are very interested in joining hoarding plans, rather than recreating a Hong Kong version of Strategy in the Hong Kong stock market.
This is related to the fundraising flexibility of the Hong Kong stock market. According to the game rules of hoarding projects, the most important thing for the listed entity is fundraising: issue bonds or stocks—raise money to buy Bitcoin—rely on the price increase of coins combined with the "premium" of the company's stock to generate excess returns. During the process of stock price increases, the listed company continues to issue bonds or stocks for financing and continues to buy Bitcoin, repeating this cycle.
This has also been referred to by some industry insiders as the "flywheel theory," where the more Bitcoin a listed company buys, the higher its stock price will rise, allowing it to raise more funds to purchase more Bitcoin.
"Traditional stock exchanges have a naturally rich array of financing tools, and in this regard, the U.S. stock market is much more flexible than the Hong Kong market," said an executive from a U.S. listed company to Tencent News "Periscope," which is also why many hoarding project parties seek cooperation with his U.S. company.
Currently, common financing tools for hoarding projects in the U.S. stock market, in addition to issuing bonds, include PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) and ATM (At The Market Offering). The commonality between the two is that, compared to other financing methods, they are more flexible and faster, with PIPE being able to quickly obtain regulatory approval within a few days and raise funds from non-public investors, similar to private placements in the Hong Kong stock market.
ATM requires the submission of a registration statement to the SEC (usually Form S-3), detailing the issuance scale and plan, and accepting dual regulation from the SEC and FINRA, but the issuance can occur at any time.
This is akin to obtaining a credit line, allowing listed companies to sell stocks to the public market in phases based on market prices, raising funds in real-time. The subsequent sale of stocks can continue for several months or even longer. This fundraising method is also referred to as "printing money" fundraising, which is relatively simple and efficient.
However, there are some limitations; the amount raised through this model each year cannot exceed one-third of the market value of the listed company's circulating shares. Hong Kong primarily raises funds through private placements, allotments, and issuing new shares, but each fundraising effort requires regulatory approval and must complete a full approval process.
In terms of fundraising tools, U.S. listed companies are clearly more flexible than those in Hong Kong. Taking Strategy as an example, the company has raised funds multiple times through PIPE and ATM since 2024, especially in the past year, raising over $4 billion and $24 billion through these two methods, respectively.
As of September 2, Strategy's market value exceeded $98.85 billion, holding 629,370 Bitcoins, which have a market value of about $70 billion, while the cost of holding each Bitcoin is approximately $73,320.
"Hong Kong is still a paradise for the wealthy, including big shots from the crypto space, who are accustomed to gathering in Hong Kong," said an investor rooted in the crypto space for many years to Tencent News "Periscope." He noted that Hong Kong is suitable for big players to come together to accumulate projects, find money, or pool funds, but ultimately, projects need to be implemented in the United States.
Recently, many activities related to the crypto space have taken place in Hong Kong, with prominent figures including but not limited to Sun Yuchen, Li Lin, and Zhao Changpeng being active.
However, they still believe that the United States is the main stage for coin-stock linkage. In addition to the convenience of financing for listed entities, the overall liquidity of the U.S. stock market is much better than that of Hong Kong. These hoarding companies need sufficient liquidity to support their rising stock prices.
The Game of the Rich: Individual Project Funding Scale of At Least $1 Billion
Some more cautious investors believe that the market is beginning to see an unreasonable gold rush for hoarding coins. These hoarding companies are rapidly and massively replicating Strategy's model, raising funds from the traditional financial market and then purchasing Bitcoin and other tokens, which has become the core of hoarding project companies. This also includes many small-cap, lower-quality listed companies.
At the same time, some hoarding companies that have not been able to purchase Bitcoin and other tokens at the expected speed have begun to be abandoned by some investors, and their stock prices have started to decline.
The most notable case is Japan's Metaplanet, the sixth-largest Bitcoin buyer globally. The company's stock price fell from a peak of 1,895 yen per share in mid-June to 853 yen at the close on September 2, a drop of over 50%. Prior to this, at the beginning of 2025, after announcing its transformation into a hoarding company, its stock price had once surged more than fourfold.
On September 1, the company announced that it had obtained shareholder approval for a financing proposal, allowing it to raise up to 555 billion yen (approximately $3.8 billion) through the issuance of preferred shares to broaden its financing channels after a significant drop in stock price.
The company also appointed Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, as a member of its newly established advisory committee—essentially inviting Eric Trump to leverage his celebrity effect to "call the shots," which is a very typical tactic in the crypto space. The effectiveness of this move remains to be seen, but as of September 2, Metaplanet's stock price remained unaffected—at least for now, their celebrity endorsement did not seem to have an impact.
This serves as a warning to newcomers entering the hoarding game: the United States should be considered the main stage for hoarding coins. The game of Wall Street + crypto requires a sufficiently large and liquid market to support it, and Japan is not an ideal market.
"Hoarding projects with small amounts of money are not very meaningful anymore," several individuals planning hoarding projects in Hong Kong expressed similar views to Tencent News "Periscope." They believe that hoarding a leading coin and trying to achieve a hoarding volume and market value in the top three is essential; "if you rank lower, it actually doesn't matter much." They unanimously agree that a hoarding project scale of $1 billion is necessary to have a chance to rank in the top three.
A person preparing a hoarding project in asset management told Tencent News "Periscope" that a good hoarding project requires "three reliable" elements: reliable underlying assets of the token, reliable project supporters (understood as token fund supporters, such as the Zhao Changpeng family for BNB), and a reliable team—this is also why hundreds of teams are "attacking" Zhao Changpeng's family office, hoping to gain support.
More aggressive individuals believe that if there are no large amounts of funds hoarding a token, it means that these tokens may be abandoned by the market. Currently, there are already many listed companies hoarding Bitcoin, with the leading company, Strategy, having a market value exceeding $98.8 billion.
Tencent News "Periscope" has learned that the big players currently entering the market in Hong Kong have not yet decided to hoard Bitcoin, with more choosing to focus on BNB, Ethereum, Solana, and other tokens. For example, Yunfeng Financial, in which Jack Ma holds shares, and the hoarding fund under New Fire Technology are both primarily targeting Ethereum.
On September 2, Yunfeng Financial announced that its board had approved the purchase of Ethereum on the open market as company reserve assets. As of the announcement date, the group had accumulated 10,000 ETH, with a total investment amount of $44 million (approximately 314 million RMB).
New Fire Technology CEO Weng Xiaoqi told Tencent News "Periscope" that compared to Bitcoin, the hoarding project for Ethereum has greater premium potential.
Public data shows that the leading Ethereum hoarding company by market value is Bitmine, which had a market value of $7.75 billion and held 1.71 million Ethereum as of September 2—far below Strategy's nearly $100 billion market value. Renowned U.S. investor Cathie Wood's Ark Invest purchased over $200 million worth of Bitmine stock, including more than $30 million in recent days after Bitmine's continuous decline.
A traditional institutional investor from Hong Kong who has been buying Bitmine continuously during this period told Tencent News "Periscope" that hoarding projects in the U.S. are overheated, and even Bitmine, which holds the most Ethereum, has seen its stock price gains weaken. Other tokens, including Binance Coin, may also face similar situations.
He does not agree with the view that "as long as there is a larger scale of funds entering the market and concentrating on hoarding a single token, the stock price will definitely skyrocket."
Correspondingly, his outlook is more pessimistic: the future of hoarding projects is currently unclear. After all, these listed companies raise funds from the traditional financial market at cheaper rates to buy Bitcoin and other tokens at market prices, but in reality, these companies have not generated real revenue. For example, Strategy's revenue is only $150 million, while Starbucks, with a similar market value, has revenue exceeding $7.5 billion.
He is more concerned that Bitcoin is currently in a rising phase, and the logic of coin-stock linkage seems correct; once Bitcoin begins to decline, what will these hoarding companies do?
The listed companies that are rushing into the hoarding game may not want to know the exact answer.
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