Animoca Brands Plans U.S. Listing to Capture 'Unique Moment' of Trump Administration: FT

Animoca Brands, a Web3 investment company, is planning a public listing in New York, seeking to capture the "unique moment" offered by the Trump administration's approach to digital asset regulation, executive chairman Yat Siu told the Financial Times.

An announcement on plans to list could be made soon, Yat Siu said in an interview, according to the Financial Times.

Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. crypto regulatory landscape was littered with lawsuits and enforcement actions against prominent crypto companies such as crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. These have been dropped this year in a signal of the more friendly approach to the digital asset industry by the Trump administration.

“If the U.S. didn’t do what they did with the regulators [under Biden], we probably would have competitors in the U.S.," Siu said. "It's a unique moment in time. I feel like it would be one heck of a wasted opportunity if we didn't at least try."

In a comment received after this story was published, Siu said he'd been misunderstood.

"I was referring to ramping up our overall activity in the U.S.," he said in an emailed comment. "I was not explicitly saying that we will list in the U.S. or in New York, although that is certainly a possibility."

The Hong Kong-based company has been a prominent investor in the Web3 industry for a number of years, having risen to prominence during the non-fungible token (NFT) boom of 2021. Its investments include blockchain game Axie Infinity, NFT marketplace OpenSea and Kraken.

Kraken is itself considering selling shares to the public for the first time in the U.S. next year.

Beyond investments in NFTs and GameFi projects, Animoca Brands' most recent financial report showed a pivot towards its advisory service, which covers token advisory, tokenomics, marketing, listing advisory, node operation and trading services.

Animoca holds $293 million in cash and stablecoins, $538 million in digital assets, and $2.9 billion in off-balance-sheet token reserves on its balance sheet, according to its latest report.

The company did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for further comment.

UPDATE (May 14, 11:50 UTC): Adds emailed comment from Yat Siu saying he'd been misunderstood in FT interview.