Asia’s biggest stock exchanges push back against companies hoarding crypto

[TOKYO] Three of Asia Pacific’s biggest stock exchanges are pushing back against crypto hoarding vehicles masquerading as listed companies.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited (HKEX) has challenged the plans of at least five firms seeking to pivot to digital-asset treasury (DAT) strategies as their core business in recent months, citing rules that prohibit large liquid holdings, according to sources familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified as the applications are confidential. As yet, none of those firms have been given the green light. So-called DATs have met with similar opposition in India and Australia.

The resistance comes with both cryptocurrencies and the listed vehicles focused on accumulating them under growing pressure, putting at risk a digital-assets rally that has prevailed for most of 2025.

Bitcoin hit a record of US$126,251 on Oct 6 and is up 18 per cent year-to-date, a surge fuelled in large part by an explosion of companies dedicated to stockpiling the token. The model pioneered by Michael Saylor’s US$70 billion Bitcoin giant Strategy has given rise to hundreds of imitators globally. They have mostly boasted valuations greater than that of their crypto holdings, underscoring strong investor demand.

More recently, DATs’ purchases have slowed and their share prices have sagged, coinciding with a sharp sell-off in wider crypto markets. Retail investors have lost an estimated US$17 billion piling into DAT trades, according to a recent report from Singapore-based 10X Research.

In Asia-Pacific markets, exchange operators’ reservations threaten to grind the plans of crypto hoarders to a halt entirely.

“Listing regulations directly shape how fast and how cleanly a digital-asset treasury model can operate,” said Rick Maeda, a Tokyo-based crypto analyst at Presto Research. Rules that are “predictable and accommodative” attract capital and boost investor confidence, while harsher environments hinder DATs’ execution speed, he added.

Cash companies

In Hong Kong, if a publicly traded firm’s assets are made up primarily of cash or short-term investments, it will be considered a “cash company” and may have its shares suspended, according to the exchange’s rules. The goal is to deter shell companies from effectively bartering their listed status for money.

For would-be crypto accumulators, success in getting approval depends on whether they can “demonstrate that acquiring crypto assets is part and parcel of their operating business”, said Simon Hawkins, a partner at law firm Latham & Watkins.

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Transitioning into a pure-play crypto accumulator is currently forbidden for listed firms in the former British territory, said the sources familiar with the matter.

An HKEX spokesperson declined to comment on the individual firms whose plans it has challenged, but said its framework “ensures that the businesses and operations of all applicants seeking to list, as well as those already listed, are viable and sustainable, and of substance”.

In a similar episode, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) last month rejected an application from Jetking Infotrain to list shares from a preferential allotment. The company had said that it would invest some of the proceeds in crypto. It’s appealing the decision, a filing shows. The BSE and Jetking did not respond to requests for comment.

In Australia, ASX bars listed firms from holding 50 per cent or more of their balance sheets in cash or cash-like assets. The clause makes it “essentially impossible” to adopt a crypto treasury model, said Locate Technologies chief executive officer Steve Orenstein. The software firm-turned-Bitcoin buyer is currently in the process of shifting its listing from Australia to New Zealand, whose NZX is open to hosting DATs, according to a spokesperson.

ASX-listed firms that pivot to investing in Bitcoin or Ether “are encouraged to consider structuring their offering as an exchange traded fund”, a spokesperson for the bourse said. Otherwise, they are “unlikely to be considered suitable for admission to the official list”.

ASX does not prohibit crypto treasury strategies, they said, while warning that conflicts with listing rules must be carefully managed.

Japan’s hoarders

Japan is a significant outlier in the Asia-Pacific region. There, it’s commonplace for public companies to sit on large piles of cash, and listing rules allow DATs a relatively free rein.

“Once a company is listed, if it makes appropriate disclosures, for example, disclosing that it is purchasing Bitcoin, it would be quite difficult to immediately conclude that such actions are unacceptable,” said Hiromi Yamaji, chief executive officer at Japan Exchange Group, at a press conference on Sep 26.

The nation is home to 14 listed Bitcoin buyers, the most in Asia, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. Among those is hotelier Metaplanet, an early adopter of the treasury model that now sits on a US$3.3 billion cache of Bitcoin. From early 2024, when it began its pivot, the company’s shares ballooned to a mid-June peak of 1,930 yen. They have since fallen more than 70 per cent.

Japan has produced some of the more outlandish Bitcoin-buying plans: Convano, a Tokyo-listed operator of nail salons, in August announced plans to raise about 434 billion yen (S$3.7 billion) to acquire 21,000 Bitcoin. At the time, its market value was a fraction of that sum.

Yet even for Japan’s hoarders, there are signs of friction.

MSCI, one of the world’s largest index providers, recently proposed excluding large DATs from its global indexes following an inquiry triggered by Metaplanet’s US$1.4 billion international equity sale in September. Metaplanet, which joined the MSCI Japan Small Cap gauge in February, said that it would use most of the proceeds to buy Bitcoin, and has since purchased an additional 10,687 tokens. Metaplanet did not respond to a request for comment.

DATs “may exhibit characteristics similar to investment funds”, which are ineligible for MSCI indexes, the company said in an announcement. MSCI has suggested a ban on firms whose crypto holdings represent 50 per cent or more of their total assets.

Exclusion would mean that DATs no longer enjoy passive inflows from funds that track the indexes, Japan equity analyst Travis Lundy wrote in a note on Smartkarma. “That could kill the premium to book argument,” he added. BLOOMBERG