Animoca Brands Pauses Nasdaq Plan After Currenc Talks End
The reverse merger with Currenc Group has been put on hold, leaving Animoca’s path to a Nasdaq listing open for now. The Hong Kong company is still looking for a public listing through a major exchange.
Key Takeaways
- Animoca Brands has paused talks about a reverse merger with Currenc Group.
- That puts the Hong Kong crypto company’s Nasdaq listing plan on hold for now.
- Animoca says it remains committed to going public through a major exchange.
Animoca Brands has paused talks about a reverse merger with Currenc Group. That puts the Hong Kong crypto company’s plan for a Nasdaq listing on hold for now, although it says it still remains committed to going public through a major exchange.
Talks Stall
According to Animoca, the planned timing no longer fits both sides’ goals. The company announced on Tuesday that the negotiations have therefore been suspended. Talks between Animoca and Currenc began late last year, with the plan for Animoca to own 95% of the combined company.
Animoca said it remains “fully committed” to a listing on a major public exchange. Co-founder Yat Siu added that the company continues to look for “optimal routes” to a stock market listing. The wording shows that the company is not giving up on a listing, but is keeping other paths open.
What Drives Animoca
Animoca Brands is active in DeFi, AI, NFTs, and gaming. On top of that, advisory work has long been growing into a bigger part of revenue. That makes a public listing relevant for the company, since it could give it a broader profile with institutional players and the international market.
The proposed deal with Currenc fit into that broader strategy. The idea was to use a reverse merger to get faster access to the U.S. stock market, without a traditional IPO. Now that route has been put on hold, the question remains which structure Animoca will later choose for a listing.
What It Means for the Market
For European crypto followers, this is mainly relevant because Animoca is one of the better-known names in the digital asset sector. The company sits at the intersection of crypto, gaming, and AI, and a stock market listing could further increase the visibility of that segment. At the same time, the delay shows that even large crypto companies cannot always finish their listing plans on schedule.
Interest in a listing fits into a broader trend in which digital assets and tokenization are moving more and more toward the capital markets. For example, tokenized stocks show that investors outside the traditional crypto market are also increasingly working with blockchain structures.
Currenc closed Monday at $3.23 (€2.81), up 1.25% on the day, and then fell another 0.93% in after-hours trading.
