Hong Kong’s HashKey dives into AI with new product and hints at AI agents

Crypto exchange HashKey launches its first AI-driven product, ModAI. The firm also plans to expand its product to include AI agents that can trade on the blockchain.

On April 3, the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange has taken its first step into the field of artificial intelligence with the release of its latest product, ModAI. According to its official website, HashKey’s ModAI is designed to moderate content, generate virtual avatars, engage with users as a chatbot and offer customer support.

According to a report from SCMP, the company stated that the AI-driven tool could potentially cut down operational costs by 80% and double user engagement. ModAI uses a combination of large language models or LLMs, consisting of DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms.

The AI tool can respond to users in different languages, ranging from Chinese, English, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The company plans to add more languages to its knowledge base later within this year.

HashKey’s vice-president of product and head of the AI team, Sean Wang, said that the crypto firm initially planned to develop its own LLM, but decided against it due to the high cost needed to create one.

On the other hand, Wang said the company plans to expand its AI tool to include AI agents that can perform various tasks for users. One of the tasks HashKey (HSK) hopes its AI agents will be able to do in the future is automatically invest in crypto assets based on a user’s capital and target returns, Wang explained.

AI agents have been a hot topic in crypto spaces as traders gravitate towards the ease and innovations offered by these agents in managing their finances. However, some have also criticized their utility and function in the crypto community.

Recently, Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said that most of the time, AI agent developers spend too much time focusing on developing a token for their AI agent instead of the agent’s usefulness. Therefore, he recommended developers to make a “really good agent first” before launching a token.

Earlier in January, CZ also criticized AI chatbots for bring “lazy” because they can only tell users what they already know, instead of being able to provide them with new information.

“The problem with AI Chatbots is that, often, I don’t know what I don’t know. I don’t know what to ask. It would be good if it could just tell me things I should know. So lazy,” wrote CZ in his post.

Last month, HashKey launched a new initiative that would rate cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges in Hong Kong to help the local crypto companies comply with the region’s regulatory framework for virtual assets.