How difficult is it for publicly listed companies to "play Web3"?

Two and a half months ago, Hong Kong-listed company “Hua Jian Medical” (1931.HK) dropped a heavy bombshell: announcing plans to spend “no more than 3 billion HKD” to acquire cryptocurrencies (mainly Ethereum ETH), fully entering Web3.

A traditional medical company mainly engaged in in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) products suddenly going “all in” on the crypto world, and also planning to “tokenize medical intellectual property rights RWA (real-world assets),” such a radical transformation sparked a market frenzy at the time.

However, this “big gamble” was suddenly paused after two and a half months.

According to Hua Jian Medical’s latest announcement last Friday (November 1), this highly anticipated “3 billion acquisition plan”… has been temporarily halted.

“Emergency brake”: What happened?

In simple terms, Hua Jian Medical’s “Web3 leap” was thwarted on two fronts:

HKD 3 billion “buy crypto” plan halted

Event: The planned major acquisition of “buy crypto” worth 3 billion HKD, which was to be submitted for shareholder approval, has been temporarily stopped due to “the need for additional time to obtain shareholder authorization.”

Plain language translation: The company wanted to spend 3 billion HKD to buy ETH, but this was too big a deal. The original plan required a shareholder meeting to get all shareholders’ approval, but now the “circular has not been dispatched on time,” indicating a hang-up on shareholder authorization. Most likely, traditional shareholders have cast a “vote of no confidence” or resistance against this aggressive plan.

HKD 3.1 billion “merger and acquisition” plan directly canceled

Event: Another plan announced in early September to issue 3.142 billion shares to acquire a 20.31% stake in “Guofu Quantum” (0290), was canceled because the preconditions were not met on time.

Plain language translation: This acquisition was an important part of their Web3 blueprint (Guofu Quantum is also laying out Web3). Now that the deal is off, Hua Jian Medical’s “RWA ecosystem” hasn’t even started building, and they’ve already lost an important ally.

Review of the “epic” blueprint: What did Hua Jian Medical originally want to do?

We must revisit Hua Jian’s “epic” RWA blueprint from August, dropping the scalpel and picking up blockchain: only then can we understand how significant this “brake” really is.

Their plan was extremely ambitious:

RWA Dream: The core was to build a “medical innovation drug intellectual property RWA” platform.

Tokenization: Turn expensive “new drug patents” into RWA tokens.

ETH Conversion: Convert these “medical RWAs” into ETH, fragment them, and circulate on the market. (This is the underlying logic behind their plan to buy 3 billion ETH)

Stablecoin Creation: Develop their own stablecoin for platform settlement.

This is a super story of “medicine + RWA + stablecoins + AI.” But now it seems this story was told too fast, too big.

Why “emergency brake”? The “tightening” of listed company transformation

From “all in” to “emergency brake,” Hua Jian Medical took only two and a half months, perfectly exposing the true difficulties faced by a traditional listed company trying to “turn around” into Web3:

Shareholder “tether”: When a listed company spends money, especially 3 billion HKD to buy a highly volatile asset, it must pass a shareholder meeting. The Web3 circle thinks “going all in” is cool, but how would the traditional, conservative fund shareholders and retail investors behind the listed company think? They are likely to see it as “unprofessional” and “risky.” Hua Jian Medical clearly underestimated the difficulty of convincing shareholders.

Regulatory “tether”: Under HKEX rules, such a scale acquisition qualifies as a “major acquisition” (Chapter 14), requiring extremely detailed and strict disclosure, audit, and approval processes. This isn’t something a startup CEO can decide on unilaterally. The fact that Hua Jian “has not dispatched the circular on time” already indicates significant compliance hurdles.

“Rearrangement” for survival: What is Hua Jian’s new way out?

Although the “3 billion major acquisition” was halted, it doesn’t mean Hua Jian Medical has completely given up on Web3. On the contrary, they chose a more winding, slower “rearrangement” path:

“Wholesale” to “retail”: No longer pursuing the earth-shattering “single approval” of 3 billion HKD. Instead, they plan to “buy ETH gradually in the market” in the future. Buying a little at a time, and disclosing only when it triggers listing rules. This is a strategy of “breaking into smaller pieces” to avoid alarming shareholders and regulators.

“Main attack” to “side attack”: The original “medical RWA” plan is being restructured. Meanwhile, they are starting to develop AI—building an AI algorithm platform and integrating RWA valuation models. This is similar to a “hedge” strategy: when the Web3 story hits obstacles, immediately join another hot story—AI—to maintain market confidence.

“Home ground” to “away game”: Abandoning the plan to develop stablecoins in Hong Kong, and instead applying for a “US stablecoin license.” The reason is “more advanced US regulation” (which is quite interesting), but this also means huge dollar reserves are needed.

Event observations

Hua Jian Medical’s “emergency brake” is a cold shower for the “Web3 transformation fever” of traditional listed companies. It ambitiously aimed to sprint into a new world but was pulled back by the fundamental “gravity” of “shareholder approval” and “regulatory compliance.”

From the boast of “all in” with 3 billion HKD, to now “breaking into smaller pieces” with a slow reorganization, Hua Jian Medical’s story has just begun. It also serves as a lesson for all traditional enterprises attempting to transform:

Web3’s ticket is far more expensive than imagined; and “compliance” is always the first hurdle that listed companies cannot bypass. **$OGN **$UMA $BNT