If this were said ten years ago, the Wanxiang Group, known for manufacturing universal joints and automotive chassis, going to Hong Kong to establish a cryptocurrency exchange would have been pure fantasy.
But today, on December 17th, this has truly happened.
Wanxiang's HashKey has officially been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming Asia's first genuine Web3 concept stock.
This is not a minor issue; this is a serious 'national-level' industrial capital officially entering the cryptocurrency circle. Today, let's break this down and discuss in plain terms what this is all about and how it affects ordinary people like us.
First, let's talk about the big boss behind the scenes, Lu Weiding.
This is not an air coin big shot with no trace online; he is a legitimate 'second-generation entrepreneur' holding the automotive parts empire of Wanxiang Group.
For an ordinary person taking over, just maintaining the status quo would be impressive. But this guy is ruthless.
As early as 2015, when most people in China still didn't know what Bitcoin was and even considered it a scam, he had already quietly laid the groundwork. He recruited industry giant Xiao Feng to establish the Wanxiang Blockchain Laboratory.
This vision is definitely a dimensionality reduction attack.
Today, the Wanxiang system not only hasn't collapsed but has transformed its business from 'iron lumps' to 'blockchain', a leap more intense than Elon Musk launching rockets.
You might ask, why are there so many platforms for virtual assets now, yet it's him who managed to go public?
The core is just two words: compliance.
Today's crypto world is no longer the wild era it used to be. Previously, it was 'whoever dares gets in'; now it's 'whoever has a license gets to the table.'
HashKey is one of the first exchanges in Hong Kong to obtain a license from the Securities and Futures Commission, alongside OSL, recognized as the two major compliance platforms in Hong Kong.
This means it is not the kind of fly-by-night operation that could run off at any moment, but rather a place like a traditional bank, regulated, with thresholds, where you can safely deposit money.
This is like how people used to secretly launder money by the river, but now the government has built you a proper swimming pool with lifeguards and disinfectant; would you dare to go?
Lu Weiding is betting on this 'normalization' future. What he holds is the credibility and cash flow accumulated by Wanxiang Group over decades, which is the hardest moat in the crypto industry.
Let's take a look at those eye-catching hard data in the prospectus.
In 2022, there were only 18 registered users, yes, you read that right, a single-digit number. But by 2025, registered users skyrocketed to 1.44 million. This growth curve is more thrilling than Bitcoin's K-line.
Now they manage pledged assets worth 29 billion Hong Kong dollars, with another 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars in real assets tokenized.
However, there is a painful reality:
It is still losing money.
In the past three years, the total loss has approached 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. Although revenue in the first half of this year was 280 million, it still suffered losses of over 500 million.
So why go public? Why can it still raise 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars?
Because the capital market does not look at current profits; it looks at ecological positions.
Lu Weiding used the cash flow of Wanxiang Group to forcefully create a compliant infrastructure. Although it's burning a lot of money now and suffering big losses, as long as it occupies the gateway position in Hong Kong that connects Chinese capital and global crypto assets, the future potential is huge.
This is similar to when Jack Ma started Taobao; it was all losses at first, but by occupying the 'e-commerce entry point', they couldn't even keep up with the money printing later on.
The listing of HashKey is definitely not an isolated event.
It has released a very strong signal: traditional industrial capital has officially begun to take over the crypto space.
In the past, we thought the crypto world was a grassroots carnival, a geek's game. But in the future, with industrial giants like Wanxiang entering the arena and regions with regulations like Hong Kong and Dubai ramping up efforts, the crypto game has fundamentally changed.
The future trend is simply two words: compliance.
Without a license and without an entity background, it is highly likely to be gradually marginalized.
For us ordinary people, the era of getting rich through 'air coins' and 'pyramid schemes' is completely over. Future wealth opportunities lie in how to make real-world assets, like houses, cars, and copyrights, more liquid through blockchain technology, also known as RWA.
This is the 'blockchain compliance highway' that Lu Weiding and others are building.
Understanding this logic, you will see the next decade's windfall ahead of others.
Follow me, and I'll help you see through the fog of capital to understand the true logic of wealth.$BTC
