In the summer heat of August in Hong Kong, the former Huobi executive team decided to ignite a new "fire" of digital currency in this Pearl of the Orient.

"SINOHOPE TECH (01611) is one of the earliest crypto concept stocks in Hong Kong, but over the past few years, due to management team changes and scattered business operations, it has failed to form strategic synergy," Weng Xiaoqi candidly told Zhitong Finance APP. Li Lin (founder of Huobi and the largest shareholder of SINOHOPE TECH) invited him to reshape SINOHOPE TECH with an entrepreneurial mindset, with the "core goal of building a 'Goldman Sachs of the crypto industry'."

Weng Xiaoqi is a rare leader in the crypto industry who combines technical background, compliance experience, and strategic vision. He served as CEO of Huobi Global in 2018, experiencing the complete cycle of the cryptocurrency market from 2018-2021. In 2023, he joined HashKey Exchange as CEO, responsible for the establishment and implementation of the exchange.

On August 27, at the "Hong Kong Blockchain Summit and SINOHOPE TECH Strategic Launch Conference," Weng Xiaoqi officially appeared as CEO of SINOHOPE TECH and delivered a keynote speech. Joining him at SINOHOPE were former Huobi CTO Guo Wenbin, CFO Zhang Li and other core executives, along with multiple former Huobi middle management and technical backbones, representing a complete "all-Chinese team" return.

**Based on Huobi, Beyond Huobi**

This high-profile debut has been interpreted by the market as "Huobi team fully taking over SINOHOPE TECH," inevitably linking SINOHOPE TECH with Huobi, once the world's largest digital currency exchange. SINOHOPE TECH's announcement of becoming "Asia's largest private banking-level digital asset steward" has sparked heated discussions about whether it can continue Huobi's glory.

Regarding market interpretations of this executive return as "reconnecting SINOHOPE with the Huobi ecosystem," Weng Xiaoqi emphasized: "We are not trying to replicate Huobi, but to surpass Huobi. Huobi was once one of the world's largest digital asset exchanges, but today, there are dozens of mature exchanges globally, and the No. 7 license (Hong Kong Virtual Asset Trading Platform License) is no longer scarce."

He further explained that the current industry has entered the "compliance mainstreaming" phase, and exchange business models are evolving from "heavy assets" to "light carriers" (such as ETF and DAT models). "SINOHOPE will not replicate Huobi's exchange model, but will focus on high-net-worth clients, providing private banking-level full-chain services, creating differentiated complementarity with Huobi's C-end exchange business."

In this context, if SINOHOPE were to build another "full-stack" exchange, it would lack differentiation and struggle to break through. Instead, it adopts a "lightweight, high-touch, full-chain" service model—private banking-level digital asset stewardship.

Its target customers are clearly defined: high-net-worth individuals with assets exceeding HK$10 million, family offices, and traditional financial institutions. "These clients' needs are not 'trading coins' but 'allocation, holding, yield generation, and inheritance'," Weng Xiaoqi explained. "They need someone to help them open accounts, deposit funds, buy coins, custody assets, manage wealth, and even establish family trusts. We provide 'personal butler-style' services, not a cold website or APP."

For example, in account opening, SINOHOPE TECH provides door-to-door, one-on-one butler services, promising to open accounts within 7 days when documentation is complete. In trading, dedicated service groups are established with 24/7 professional support. Clients can communicate trading intentions through human interaction, and the company executes through intelligent routing across multiple exchanges for optimal execution. For asset holding, assets can be custodied in trust accounts or designated compliant exchanges, or customized MPC wallets can be provided. Additionally, SINOHOPE TECH pioneered trust solutions using Bitcoin and other virtual assets as underlying assets, solving virtual asset inheritance challenges.

"This directly addresses market gaps—traditional private banks lack crypto asset custody capabilities, while leading players in digital asset private banking like Custody and BitGo have not covered the deep needs of Asian high-net-worth clients," Weng Xiaoqi emphasized. SINOHOPE TECH's core competitive advantage lies in its innovative service model, credit endorsement from licensed financial institutions and listed companies, while global major offshore exchanges, though mature, lack high-touch, customized services for high-net-worth clients.

At the forum, SINOHOPE TECH signed strategic partnerships with OSL Group (high-net-worth OTC services), Bosera Asset Management (International) (private banking service integration), and Boyaa Interactive (DAT business cooperation) to build an "asset management + custody + trading" ecosystem loop.

**$500 Million DAT Initiative**

Notably, SINOHOPE TECH's new strategy is reflected not only in service models but also breakthrough in business models. Most eye-catching is its strategic layout in the DAT (Digital Asset Treasury) model.

DAT refers to companies allocating portions of their cash reserves to digital assets like Bitcoin, as practiced by companies like MicroStrategy, Metaplanet, and Boyaa Interactive in their "treasury models."

Weng Xiaoqi believes DAT is "the most lightweight way for traditional investors to enter the crypto world." "There are billions of stock investors globally, but not many buy ETFs. Buying stocks is their most familiar method," he pointed out. "DAT essentially allows companies to allocate crypto assets like buying stocks, with lower barriers and broader channels."

To this end, SINOHOPE TECH announced establishing a $500 million DAT-focused fund, planning to strategically participate in or even lead DAT projects in US and Hong Kong stock markets. It is currently in discussions with multiple leading US funds and Asian institutions, focusing on mainstream assets like ETH and SOL.

"We don't just serve DAT companies, but promote the DAT ecosystem," Weng Xiaoqi revealed. "We may jointly issue new DAT shell companies in the future, or provide one-stop solutions for Asian companies including US listing + DAT allocation."

However, in digital asset custody and management, there are already Western giants like Coinbase Custody, BitGo, and Anchorage. How will SINOHOPE TECH break through?

"Western institutions excel in technology and compliance, but there are still gaps in serving Asian high-net-worth clients," Weng Xiaoqi believes SINOHOPE TECH's advantages lie in three areas: the team comes from Huobi and HashKey, combining practical experience with compliance capabilities; adopting "high-touch" service models providing true private banking-level companionship; possessing trust architecture capabilities to solve the ultimate pain point of "inheritance."

More importantly, SINOHOPE TECH is backed by Li Lin's capital ecosystem, forming potential synergies with Huobi Japan (BitTrade), HashKey and others. For example, it could provide cross-border services under Hong Kong licenses for Japanese ultra-high-net-worth clients, or achieve coordination at the asset management level.

**Three Years to Catch Up with Galaxy**

From a valuation perspective, SINOHOPE TECH currently has a price-to-sales (PS) ratio of only 0.5x, far below Galaxy Digital's (GLXY.US) current level of about 3x. Although SINOHOPE is not yet profitable, its mid-2024 revenue increased 427% year-over-year, showing strong growth momentum.

Weng Xiaoqi stated that SINOHOPE TECH will not blindly replicate other models, but based on market demand, achieve rapid development with minimal investment through intensive integration of past business and client resources. He prefers using a "Pareto optimization" strategy—integrating existing resources (such as OTC and asset management businesses) with minimal investment to quickly activate existing clients, avoiding heavy asset investments.

Regarding valuation, SINOHOPE TECH places more emphasis on Assets Under Management (AUM), with new financing plans not ruled out in the next 12 months.

As a benchmark, Galaxy is the first comprehensive financial institution in the crypto field benchmarked against Goldman Sachs, with business covering asset management, investment banking, trading, and mining, managing assets exceeding $5 billion.

Weng Xiaoqi stated frankly: "Galaxy took five years to reach where it is today, we plan to catch up in three years."

As a catching-up indicator, Galaxy is a pioneer in cryptocurrency compliance, and SINOHOPE TECH is also aligning with it: it already holds Hong Kong SFC Type 1, 4, 9 licenses and TCSP trust license, US-Canada MSB licenses, establishing complete compliance license barriers; the HK$93.6 million raised from the placement will be used for Hong Kong VATP license application; license applications in Singapore, UAE, Europe and other regions are also being planned; the company has completed the acquisition of Japanese compliant exchange BitTrade.

Weng Xiaoqi asserted: "Compliance is the only path for crypto finance."

From Zhitong Finance APP's perspective, whether SINOHOPE TECH can replicate Galaxy's capital success story depends on whether it can prove within 12 months that: the lightweight model of high-net-worth services can break through the "revenue growth without profit growth" dilemma, and build the DAT fund into an Asian version of MicroStrategy.