FROM HSK TO USDGO: HONG KONG'S TWO MAJOR LICENSEES BEGAN "DECOUPLING"

Author: River

Who would you first think about the virtual assets market in Hong Kong

The probability is that OSL and HashKey, the first Hong Kong exchange to obtain a license, have long been regarded as the two most representative flags in Hong Kong ' s encrypted financial chart。

However, in public view, the sense of existence is quite different. OSL has always been low-key, even though OSL HK is the first listed card exchange, and companies rarely appear in the center of public opinion; and HashKey has always been in the spotlight, often with a focus on the market, both in the light of a variety of industry activities and in community discourse around the eco-currency HSK。

Interestingly, only one day after the two institutions had been established, the authorities announced the following:

• On 25 February, HashKey Exchange on-line ecological token HSK
• 26 FEBRUARY, OSL HK ONLINE ENTERPRISE COMPLIANCE STABILIZATION CURRENCY USDGO

At first glance, this is just an ordinary currency move, but in a larger strategic context, it's like a split of two routes:One is still deep in the Web3 primary trading ecology, while the other is beginning to bet on a stable currency financial infrastructure。

This is also a reflection of the profound changes that are taking place in Hong Kong's encryption asset industry, which is not an excellent piece to observe the evolution of Hong Kong's encrypted financial landscape。

i. the "temperature" of the preceding currency: the ecological token vs financial instruments

Let's start with Hashkey on line HSK。

It is well known that HSK is the ecological token of the HashKey group, which is used in official narratives in the HashKey business-wide scene, with multiple functions such as ecological incentives, community governance and self-study of the Gas fees on the HashKey Chain chain。

IN OTHER WORDS, HSK IS A TYPICAL PLATFORM COIN。

From this perspective, HashKey's strategic path is quite clear: within the framework of Hong Kong's compliance, building a Web3 eco-closure around transactions and flows, with the HSK connectivity to trade, chain ecology and community incentives, to try to reset the classic growth path of Cripto:

Exchange (flow entry) & rar; Self-Research Public Chain (bottom facility) & rar; HSK (value capture) & rar; Web3 Ecology (closed ring)。

the kernel of this logic is that the platform currency binds users, the user magnifies the network effect, the network effect activates the ecology, then the eco-prosperity pulls up the whole valuation and ultimately builds an ecological network centred on encrypted asset trading, so its target audience is also clear — —More for retail traders, Web3 original players, and those willing to bet for HashKey's ecological future。

Source:HashKey Network

The problem, however, is that, as a listed company3887.HKHashKey owns not only the HSK, but also a publicly released share, which means it has to face a special "two skins" reality:3887.HK ON BEHALF OF SHAREHOLDERS ' INTERESTS AND FINANCIAL RETURNS, HSK CARRIES ECO-GROWTH AND COMMUNITY INCENTIVES, AND THE QUESTION OF HOW THE TWO SETS OF LOGIC DIVIDE BORDERS AND WORK TOGETHER OVER THE LONG TERM REMAINS A QUESTION FOR SIMILAR MODELS。

In fact, HashKey has been structurally deliberately cutting off listed subjects and ecological tokens. For example, stock-taking documents make it clear that the price of HSK tokens is legally and structurally separate from the price of shares of listed companies, but this does not mean that tension disappears: capital markets and Web3 ecology are naturally different in rhythm, objectives, and evaluation systems, and still need to be explained by clearer narratives and boundaries。

IN TERMS OF MARKET PERFORMANCE, HSK HAS SO FAR GONE FROM A HISTORICAL HIGH OF US$ 2.5 TO A LOW OF US$ 0.15, A MOVEMENT THAT ITSELF MAY ALSO REFLECT THE MARKET’S ATTITUDE TO THE “TWO SKINS” MODEL。

AND THEN AGAIN, OSL ON LINE THIS TIME AT USDGO。

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED IS THAT OSL HAS NOT YET CHOSEN TO ISSUE THE PLATFORM COIN, INSTEAD FOCUSING EARLY THIS YEAR ON THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEW STABILIZATION CURRENCY UNDER ITS OWN FLAGIN TERMS OF STRATEGIC WEIGHTS, USDGO CAN ALMOST BE REGARDED AS THE "PROMOTING SON" OF THE OSL GROUP, WITH HIGH EXPECTATIONS。

Among them, USSDGO and US$1:1 anchored by a United States-regulated encrypted bank, Anchorage Digital Bank, which is subject to rigorous third-party audit, and a global licensed OSL, which operates and distributes brand names. Such endorsements and product patterns of compliance also clearly distinguish it from traditional “currency-ring assets” and, objectively, closer to a chain of digital financial instruments。

OSL is also very clear about the open positioning of USDGO; — "Enterprise-level Compliance Stabilisation Currency", whose main clients are not ordinary encrypted speculators, but business and institutional clients with cross-border payment and settlement needs。

In the form of transactions, USDGO has been connected to the OSL Global platform with the USDGO's RFQ flash service and spot professional transactions, gradually creating access and flow paths to stabilize coins, and also providing transaction liquidity through OTC services。

Source:USDGO NETWORK OF OFFICIALS

More interestingly, during the same period in which USDGO went online, OSL also launched the "GO Alliance" and announced an initial investment of $20 million in ecological incentives, but this money is not a traditional bulk drop, but is directed at business and institutional partners。

The logic is closer to the typical B2B SaaS buy-in model, which gradually builds up a real business application by reducing the costs of early adoption and attracting the first industry users, in contrast to the platform currency incentive logic represented by HSK, with a clear departure from the point of departure。

In the final analysis, the two new HSKs and USDGO, respectively, show a very sharp contrast: one is a platform currency, one is a stable currency, one serves its own Web3 ecological growth logic, and one tries to become a financial instrument for cross-border financial flows by enterprises。

Two of Hong Kong ' s most representative licensees, and the two listed companies behind them, the OSL Group (863.HK) and HashKey Holdings (3887.HK), are betting on two distinct futures。

Two, two ways. The moment when the two bets split

Two previous currencies, perhaps less than the following conclusions, but if you look back since 2025, you will find that this fragmentation is not sudden。

HashKey has been playing the Web3 card firmly, betting on the boom in the native ecology, accelerating the improvement of its "Global Exchange Matrix + Self-Research Public Chain + Platform Currency System" closed。

Among them, HSK has been online on several platforms, including HashKey Global, HTX, KuCoin, Gate.io, long before the landing of HashKey Exchange, and further landed in Kraken in January 2026, opening the United States dollar to the euro and continuously expanding the circulation chart of the currency。

At the same time, HashKey Chain is moving forward in the direction of the entire layout, from exchange to public chains, from platform tokens to eco-incentives, with a strategic focus that has always been within a compliance framework to sustain a set of Web3 original growth logic: ecological, network-building, platform tokens for incentive and value capture, with the goal of building itself into a compliance encryption portal from Hong Kong to the world。

ON THE CONTRARY, THE OSL GROUP HAS EXPERIENCED A REMARKABLE STRATEGIC RE-ENGINEERING OVER THE PAST YEAR FROM A DIGITAL ASSET TRADING AGENCY TO A STABLE CURRENCY PAYMENT AND SETTLEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORM:

• In April 2025, official landings stabilized currency payments
• In July 2025, $300 million in financing was completed to finance the expansion of payments
• In July 2025, the enterprise-level encryption payment scheme, Bizpay, was launched
• In August 2025, mid-term performance was disclosed, paying up to two months of up-front contribution of nearly 30 per cent of income
• In November 2025, over 50 licence plates were disclosed in more than 10 key markets worldwide
• In January 2026, the acquisition of the global Web3 payment service provider Banxa was completed
• In January 2026, a new round of $200 million equity financing was completed
• IN FEBRUARY 2026, USDGO WAS INTRODUCED

It is against this backdrop that the roll-out of USDGO is particularly critical, not just as a stable currency, but as a central tool in the entire OSL’s payment network, which seeks to solve the real world’s liquidity problem with a stable currency, following the “Tradifi + Digital Finance.”。

When an enterprise uses USDGO for cross-border settlement, the entire process is broadly this way: French entry & rar; chain stabilization & rrr; account management and financial integration & rrrr; treasury optimization & rrr; French entry, folding OSL's own corporate payment function under Bizpay, and a network of license plates for global multi-market layout, the entire link can be completed without relying on the traditional SWIFT system and with full compliance, regulation and audit traceability。

So what we see is an interesting picture of a global financial infrastructure that continues to build the Web3 ecological matrix of "Exchange + Public Chain + Platform Currency" and accelerates the transformation of "Stabilisation Currency + Payment Network + Compliance License."。

The two tracks themselves are not the same, but they are different in their direction, revealing a different understanding of their role:

• HashKey built a Web3 native ecological network around transactions, public chains and platform tokensthe core logic is "flows; ecology": if there is an ecological flow, if there is a valuation of the flow, then there is a valuation that can feed the ecology and try to recreate the classic growth myth of the currency circle within the framework of hong kong ' s compliance
• OSL HAS TRIED TO USE A STABLE CURRENCY AS A FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE TOOL EMBEDDED IN THE PAYMENT AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEM OF THE SERVICE REAL ECONOMYthe core is "license plates; internet": institutional trust with compliance plates, real demand with payment networks, sustained income with real demand, and attempts to find a real place for "compatible digital assets"

Where will Hong Kong's encryption finance experiment go

A higher perspective, the separation of HashKey from OSL, can also be seen as a microcosm of a larger experiment under way in Hong Kong's encrypted asset market。

The idea of Hong Kong’s regulatory hierarchy has never been a simple one。

Since the issuance of the 2022 Virtual Asset Policy Declaration, Hong Kong has made a significant contribution to the development of the Web3 industry, while at the same time attempting to embed encrypted assets in the traditional financial system through a compliance regulatory framework. As a result, the emergence of two different paths in the same market is not a contradiction in itself, but may instead become a structural advantage of Hong Kong ' s encrypted asset ecology as a compliance race horse:

On the one hand, web3 original innovation, and on the other hand, encrypted financial infrastructure, are not necessarily a competitive relationship between the two, and more likely are different levels of market division。

The significance of the experiment is being further amplified, even to a certain extent, as the regulation of the stabilization currency is coming down, making it a key variable for success or failure in the experiment。

With the introduction of regulatory advice in 2022, the introduction of regulatory sandbox tests in 2024, the passage of the Stabilisation Currency Bill in May 2025, and the entry into force of the regulations in August of that year, Hong Kong's stable currency regulatory framework has been working for many years, and is now largely in shape, and the stable currency market will enter into a formal compliance phase as the licensing system approaches。

in a more macro-industry trend, stable currencies are becoming a central asset in the chain of financial systems, for reasons that are not complex, since they preserve the technological advantages of global flows of block chains, real-time settlements and programmability, while at the same time possessing the stability attributes of traditional finance & mdash; & mdash; french currency pricing, auditability, regulation and even more financial rules can be embedded in compliance frameworks。

This is why a growing number of traditional financial institutions are beginning to pay serious attention to the stabilization currency, the real value of which, at least for large global SMEs, lies not in speculation, but in more efficient cross-border payments and financial management。

MAYBE IT'S AGAINST THIS BACKGROUND THAT OSL PUT USDGO IN SUCH A CENTRAL POSITION。

In the end, the key to understanding OSL's strategy is to understand what the USDGO is, because it is not the traditional market-oriented and stable currency, but more like a chain-based account system and conduit linking TradeFi to Web3:

BUSINESSES CAN STILL USE FRENCH CURRENCY FOR PRICING, INVOICING DOLLARS, STANDARD AUDIT STATEMENTS, BUT INSTEAD SWITCH "CROSS-BORDER LIQUIDITY" FROM SWIFT TO A MORE EFFICIENT AND CONVENIENT NETWORK OF SETTLEMENTSIn this process, enterprises do not need to understand the Web3 culture or hold any volatile assets to enjoy a faster, cheaper and still compliant payment route。

SOURCE: OSL

In general, either HashKey's committed Web3 ecology, or OSL's bet on a stable currency financial network, both paths are essentially trying to answer the ultimate question:Where's the second half of the compliance and encryption industry? What can a compliance encrypted asset really do

LOOKING BACK AT THE FIRST DECADE OF THE ENCRYPTION INDUSTRY, THE CORE NARRATIVE HAS ALWAYS REVOLVED AROUND "TRANSACTIONS," BUT WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF STABLE CURRENCIES, RWAS AND CHAIN FINANCE, MORE AND MORE INSTITUTIONS HAVE COME TO REALIZE THAT THE REAL OPPORTUNITY MAY LIE NOT IN NEW EXCHANGES OR NEW TOKENS, BUT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ENCRYPTED FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE ITSELF。

So, as HashKey and OSL move along two different routes, they represent, in fact, two futures that the whole industry is exploring。

At the end

More than three years after the issuance of the Hong Kong Virtual Asset Policy Declaration, the market cycle has changed and the regulatory system has improved. The first two licensed institutions are now at different crossroads。

Who goes further and eventually goes back to the two simplest questionsWhat really does it hurt? What's the network effect

It takes time to answer, but at least one thing is clear:

The two most representative players in Hong Kong no longer follow the same path。