KUALA LUMPUR: Hata, Malaysia’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is expecting strong growth in 2025 as global policies favour digital assets and drive wider adoption.
Hata CEO David Low pointed to policy developments in the United States, particularly President Donald Trump’s push to position the country as a hub for crypto innovation.
Low believes such moves will accelerate mainstream adoption worldwide.
“These favourable policies will encourage growth in the retail market and the institutional space. We look forward to seeing much higher adoption in the crypto sector as a whole,“ he told SunBiz.
Trump has openly advocated for fair digital asset regulations and has proposed a national or strategic Bitcoin reserve. This would involve the US buying large amounts of cryptocurrency over the coming years and holding it as a reserve, similar to the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Hata is a digital asset platform that offers an online exchange of cryptocurrencies and is regulated by the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority.
With over three million Malaysians having opened crypto trading accounts, Low said, 2025 will be a positive year for the cryptocurrency industry in Malaysia because of the global momentum.
“When these policies are favourable towards the growth of the industry as a whole, generally, that will create more adoption. That enables us to build two platforms, one that serves Malaysians, enabling them to buy and sell digital assets with ringgit, and the other to serve users globally outside Malaysia, enabling them to buy and sell digital assets with US dollars,“ he said.
Low, a former general manager at digital exchange Luno and one of its earliest employees, played a key role in expanding the company’s operations. “I helped set up their business, apply for licences, and scale across Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.”
Addressing concerns about cryptocurrency’s volatility, Low explained that blockchain technology was originally designed to facilitate value transfers and payments.
“However, due to asset limitations, many investors now treat it as both an investment class and a speculative asset, similar to digital gold or tech stocks,“ he said.
Crypto assets exhibit digital gold characteristics while offering speculative opportunities, much like technology stocks, Low said.
He advised Malaysians to understand the technology and use licensed exchanges to avoid scams if they choose to invest.
“More importantly, investors must grasp the fundamentals before putting money into cryptocurrencies. If investors adopt a long-term strategy by investing consistently through dollar-cost averaging, rather than making short-term trades, they can significantly reduce their risk of loss,“ Low explained.
Using Bitcoin as an example, he noted that in 2017 or 2018, it was worth only about a thousand US dollars. “Fast forward to today, more than five years later, and it’s worth significantly more.”
Low said success in the crypto industry comes from a responsible investment approach.
“Only investing what you can afford to lose, treating it as an alternative asset rather than a primary investment, and maintaining a long-term outlook instead of short-term speculation,“ he said.
