Animoca Brands has made a strategic investment in Ava Labs and entered a partnership to support projects building on the Avalanche blockchain, focusing on capital deployment, advisory support and expansion in Asia and the Middle East.
According to Thursday’s announcement by the Hong Kong-based Web3 company, the collaboration will target sectors including real-world assets, digital identity and entertainment, with Animoca providing business development support and access to regional networks to help Avalanche-based projects scale and reach institutional users.
Projects pursued under the partnership may also tap into the broader ecosystem of portfolio companies, Animoca said.
The effort is aimed at strengthening Avalanche’s position in markets where digital asset activity is growing, particularly by supporting deployments that require scalable infrastructure and compatibility with existing blockchain standards.
Animoca will also work with Avalanche developers on product integrations and funding opportunities, with an initial focus on projects seeking to launch and expand in the Middle East and Asia.
The initiative centers on connecting builders with capital and distribution channels, particularly for use cases such as tokenized assets and identity systems that target institutional and government-backed deployments.
Animoca Brands manages a portfolio of more than 600 blockchain projects, according to the company. In February, it secured a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, allowing it to expand crypto services in the region.
Ava Labs is a blockchain development company and core contributor to the Avalanche network, a layer 1 blockchain designed for high-speed, low-cost applications, with its native token AVAX (AVAX) used for transactions, staking and securing the network.
Neither company disclosed the size of the investment or specific projects that will receive funding under the initiative.
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Hong Kong emerges as a regulated crypto hub
The expansion comes as Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, continues to position itself as a digital asset hub.
In 2023, the city introduced a new licensing regime requiring crypto trading platforms to register with the Securities and Futures Commission, opening the door to regulated retail access under stricter investor protection rules.
In April 2024, Hong Kong approved its first spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds, and in October 2025 okayed a spot Solana (SOL) ETF, becoming one of the first markets to do so ahead of the United States.
The city’s push into digital assets has since broadened beyond trading, with authorities and financial institutions advancing initiatives across stablecoins, tokenized bonds and blockchain-based trade finance.
In February, officials said a new digital asset platform would support the issuance and settlement of tokenized bonds, with plans to connect it to regional tokenization infrastructure and extend it to other assets.
Earlier this month, Hong Kong and Shanghai authorities agreed to collaborate on blockchain-based trade finance and cargo data, exploring a cross-border platform for digitizing trade documentation under the HKMA’s Project Ensemble initiative.
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