Hong Kong crypto firm HashKey moves into AI amid drive for more blockchain automation
Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange operator, is making its foray into the
artificial intelligence (AI) market with the launch of its first generative AI product, underscoring the rising interest from Web3 firms in combining AI and blockchain technologies.
Advertisement
ModAI, unveiled on Thursday, is designed to automate content moderation, generate humanlike engagement, and offer customer support. The tool could 'slash operational costs by 80 per cent and double user activity', the company said in a statement.
ModAI uses a combination of large language models (LLMs) from
DeepSeek , OpenAI, Anthropic and
Meta Platforms , according to HashKey. It currently supports Chinese and English, with Japanese and Vietnamese, among other languages, to be added later this year, the company said.
The AI initiative marks a new business vertical for HashKey, which began exploring new areas of business two years ago. It initially pursued training its own LLM – the technology underpinning chatbots such as
ChatGPT – but scrapped the plan due to high costs, Sean Wang, HashKey's vice-president of product who leads the AI team, told the Post during an interview on Thursday.
Recent innovations from Chinese start-up DeepSeek have reignited those efforts, according to Wang. DeepSeek's cost-efficient V3 and R1 models have significantly lowered the barriers to LLM training, he said.
Advertisement
The company may use
distillation – an approach popularised by DeepSeek for training smaller models to mimic the behaviour of larger ones – to build LLMs tailored for the Web3 community.
Wang said the company expected AI agents, autonomous programs capable of performing tasks on behalf of users, to become a key application of LLMs. These agents could, for example, automatically invest in virtual assets based on a user's capital and target returns, he explained.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's food delivery scene soars with drone services to Ma On Shan
Food delivery in Hong Kong has reached a new height as a major provider has started to use drones to send orders, cutting waiting time by 35 minutes. The service, provided by Keeta Drone, a subsidiary of mainland Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, delivers orders from two fast-food restaurants in Science Park to a landing zone on Ma On Shan Promenade. The operator said it was planning to expand the service to other locations in the new town using the company's automatic kiosk system. 'The reason that we chose the Science Park and Ma On Shan area is because this is considered a relatively low-risk area with the bay separating the two [areas],' said Mao Yinian, vice-president of Meituan and the president of Keeta Drone. Keeta is one of two food delivery platforms operating in Hong Kong, along with Foodpanda, following the exit of London-based Deliveroo from the Hong Kong market in April. The new service, which will cost Keeta customers HK$30 (US$3.80) in delivery fees, will see travelling time for their orders to Ma On Shan Park cut down to only five minutes compared with the 40 minutes when orders are delivered by bicycle.
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong police to take down fake news report about Andy Lau resembling SCMP
Police will take down a fake news report purporting to be from the South China Morning Post about superstar actor Andy Lau Tak-wah being sued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority over his investment advice, the Post has learned. A police source said on Friday that the force's cyber security and technology crime bureau was handling the case and would take down the fabricated report as soon as possible. The website was designed to appear like the Post's. The fake article claimed the Monetary Authority had sued Lau over statements he made during a live broadcast, in which he shared his tips on becoming rich through a cryptocurrency trading platform, with a deposit of HK$2,000 (US$254) generating a million dollars in months. 'Give me 2,000 HKD, and with the Immediate FastX platform I'll make a million in 12 to 15 weeks!' Lau was quoted as saying in the article. 'This platform is the perfect solution for those who want to get rich quick. It's built on self-learning artificial intelligence, which exchanges cryptocurrencies for you.'
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Crypto confiscated in Beijing to be liquidated in Hong Kong through licensed exchanges
Beijing's police authority has unveiled a plan for liquidating cryptocurrencies confiscated in criminal cases by selling them through licensed exchanges in Hong Kong, a move that could aid the southern city's efforts to become a virtual asset hub. The municipal Public Security Bureau in Beijing said on Thursday that it has partnered with the China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) to offload seized cryptoassets through regulated platforms in Hong Kong. Under the 'Framework Agreement on Handling Seized Virtual Currencies', CBEX will be responsible for appointing third-party agencies to sell the assets through the exchanges. Proceeds will be converted into yuan and deposited in designated accounts, according to a statement posted on the bureau's official WeChat account. This marks the first time that a mainland agency has detailed a process for disposing of confiscated cryptoassets, while working within Hong Kong's virtual asset regime to offload them. Mainland China enforces a strict ban on crypto trading, complicating efforts to handle such assets seized by law enforcement. From 2019 to June 2024, Chinese authorities publicly documented 2,206 criminal cases involving digital currencies, according to Wolters Kluwer's database. In a September report, the People's Court Daily, a newspaper under the Supreme People's Court, estimated that the value of cryptocurrencies awaiting disposal by Chinese authorities by the end of 2022 exceeded several billion US dollars. In 2023, the value of crypto involved in criminal cases surged to 430.7 billion yuan (US$60 billion), a 12-fold increase from the previous year.
