Hex Trust, Asia’s leading digital asset custodian which is fully licensed in Hong Kong and Singapore with over 200 institutional clients and over US$5 billion in assets under custody, has announced that it has closed its Series B funding round of US$88 million.
The funding round was co-led by Animoca Brands and Liberty City Ventures. Participants in the round included Ripple, Terra, Morgan Creek, Primavera Venture Partners, LeadBlock Partners, Eterna Capital, Sino Global Capital, Topaz, and Adrian Cheng (CEO of Hong Kong real estate giant New World Development).
Several blockchain companies also participated in the round including BlockFi, CoinList, Protocol Labs, Pulsar Trading, and Wintermute. Previous investors also participated in the round including QBN Capital, Kenetic Capital, HashKey Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Radiant Ventures, and Cell Rising.
Clifford Chance served as Hex Trust’s legal advisor and Imperii Partners served as the financial advisor.
Hex Trust’s Series B includes US$61 million of primary capital and US$27 million from secondary investors. The new funding will be used to scale to Europe and the Middle East, obtain additional licenses, continue the development and innovation of Hex Safe, and further enhance new business services such as financing and structured solutions. Currently, Hex Trust has over 100 employees across offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Alessio Quaglini, CEO and co-founder of Hex Trust - “It was a tremendous year of growth for Hex Trust and this funding round enables us to continue scaling and become a global leader in digital asset custody. As large institutions continue adopting digital assets at an increased pace, they need fully licensed custody services to meet compliance and regulatory standards. Our mission at Hex Trust remains the same: to stay ahead of the curve in terms of licensing and compliance, integrating the latest developments such as new protocols, DeFi, NFTs, GameFi, and the metaverse, and providing innovative services and financing solutions to enable our clients to monetize digital assets held in custody with us.”
Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands - “We’re delighted to have co-led this funding round to propel Hex Trust to further growth. Since our initial investment only 7 months ago, it’s been exciting to see their impressive business traction and their technology platform go from strength to strength. We believe Hex Trust is well-positioned to capture the growth in NFTs, GameFi and the metaverse, and we are here to support them at every step of their journey.”
Murtaza Akbar, managing partner of Liberty City Ventures - “Hex Trust has consistently demonstrated its excellence in providing bank-grade, secure, and innovative custody solutions. As the industry evolves with the proliferation of new digital asset classes in the metaverse, GameFi and NFTs, we see Hex Trust able to truly thrive with their impressive technology, top-tier clients, and industry-leading partnerships. We are excited and proud to be working with Alessio and his stellar team to innovate the next generation of fully licensed custody solutions.”
Over the last year, Hex Trust has grown rapidly and onboarded high-profile projects and clients such as Algorand Foundation, Terraform Labs, Tezos Foundation, Celo Foundation, Flare Networks, Animoca Brands, Huobi Asset Management, UnionBank of the Philippines, Ripple Labs, DLA Piper, Sun Hung Kai, Slow Ventures, HOF Capital, and Arrington Capital.
Hex Trust provides fully licensed and insured bank-grade custody for digital assets. Its proprietary platform, Hex Safe, delivers custody, secure and seamless access to DeFi, prime brokerage, and financing and structured solutions for financial institutions, digital asset companies, corporations, and private clients. Hex Trust is ahead of the curve to embrace new protocols and technologies, providing access to on-chain services such as staking, wrapping, governance, delegation and more.
Hex Trust is at the forefront of industry innovation by enabling bank-grade custody with seamless access to the latest developments in digital assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), GameFi, and the metaverse. Pioneering digital asset custody support to meet industry demands is a critical problem that Hex Trust solves as the ecosystem continues to evolve.
In March 2021, Hex Trust became the first custodian to offer fully licensed support of NFTs and also announced a joint venture with Animoca Brands in November 2021 to provide ultra-secure digital asset wallets and financial services for online gamers. Hex Trust will provide its highly secure digital asset wallet technology and custody infrastructure to connect seamlessly with Animoca Brands’ blockchain-based games to support the growth of the rapidly expanding GameFi ecosystem.
Hex Trust recently ventured into the metaverse in February 2022 and purchased an ‘Estate’ in The Sandbox’s recent LAND sale in the Web3 Zone whilst also integrating custody support for LAND in Hex Safe. The integration provides institutional investors and high net worth individuals with the ability to store their LAND assets with Hex Trust, instead of having to store expensive ‘virtual land’ assets in online wallets which present greater security and hacking risks. Additionally, on top of providing custody services for LAND, Hex Trust is creating services to buy and sell LAND, as well as innovative financing solutions including leasing LAND assets and ‘virtual mortgages’.
The digital assets industry looks set to have years of sustained growth and innovation ahead. An industry report from Gartner shows that large organizations will accelerate their adoption of cryptocurrencies with giants Visa, Mastercard and Microsoft leading the way. While reports from Grayscale suggest the metaverse is expected to reach US$1.5 trillion in value by 2030.
Given the broad range of digital asset services that Hex Trust offers, Asia’s leading digital asset custodian is perfectly positioned to continue scaling, achieving sustained growth, and providing critical services vital for institutional adoption to accelerate for years to come.
Hex Trust is the leading fully-licensed and insured provider of bank-grade custody for digital assets in Asia. Led by veteran banking technologists and award-winning financial services experts, Hex Trust has built Hex Safe, a proprietary bank-grade platform that delivers custody, DeFi, brokerage, and financing solutions for financial institutions, digital asset organizations, and corporations.
Hex Trust has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam and is expanding across Europe and the Middle East. In Singapore, Hex Trust holds a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) allowing the company to provide custodial services regulated under Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act. In Hong Kong, Hex Trust is registered as a Trust Company under the Hong Kong Trust Ordinance and holds a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance.
For more information: visit hextrust.com or follow Hex Trust on LinkedIn and Twitter.
