Coinhako’s bet on institutions lift revenue – and widens losses

Thanks to the record-breaking valuation of bitcoin and the all-time highs in crypto trading activity in 2024, Singapore-headquartered Coinhako ended the year with some good news.

The cryptocurrency exchange’s revenue more than tripled year on year to S$29.7 million (US$22.9 million) in 2024, its latest audited financial statements show.

Meanwhile, losses before taxes increased eightfold to US$10.2 million over the same period.

In contrast, larger players like Coinbase was profitable last year. The firm ended 2024 with revenue of US$6.6 billion and a net income of US$2.6 billion. This was driven by a rise in transactions on higher crypto asset prices, inflows across its staking, custody and USDC assets, as well as a rise in subscribers, it wrote in a letter to its shareholders.

Coinhako CEO Yusho Liu tells Tech in Asia that the company’s growing losses is due to its continued investments to its institutional segment in the past two years.

In 2024, the segment grew over 5x in trading volume. It now accounts for 65% of the platform’s total.

These investments involve building infrastructure and hiring talent that would support both institutional and high-net-worth clients as well as “more sophisticated retail client trading,” he says.

With these investments “starting to bear fruit,” Coinhako is “proforma net profitable year-to-date ending August 2025,” Liu adds.

Pressure to get lean

Founded in 2014, Coinhako is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services. This means users can buy, sell, and store digital assets on its platform.

The company has raised US$18 million in total funding to date, with its latest round led by Amsterdam-based Peak and blockchain-focused VC Mirana Ventures.

While it doesn’t publish the volume of digital assets traded on its platform, Coinhako said in an October 2024 LinkedIn post that it had recorded US$8.5 billion in traded volume year-to-date.

Unlike larger players like Binance, Coinhako is focused on the Singapore market. It initially built a crypto trading platform for retail investors based in the city-state. On its website, Coinhako says it has over 400,000 users in the country.

But in 2023, the company established a dedicated platform for institutional investors.

Coinhako co-founder Yusho Liu / Photo credit: Coinhako

Focus on institutional clients