Australian Securities Exchange

Animoca Brands and Currenc Group have mutually suspended talks on their proposed reverse merger, telling investors Tuesday that the timeline needed to close no longer matches near-term market conditions. The pause leaves Animoca, delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange in 2020, without its fastest route back onto a major public market.

• The deal, first proposed via a non-binding term sheet on November 3, 2025, would have given Animoca shareholders roughly 95% of the combined company.
• Currenc investors would have held just 5% of the merged entity, which was set to retain the Animoca Brands name.
• Both firms say they may revisit the tie-up “if and when conditions permit,” leaving the door open rather than killing the deal outright.

• 95% share Animoca holders would have taken versus Currenc’s 5%
• 600+ digital-asset companies in the portfolio Nasdaq investors would have gained
• 2020 year Animoca was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange

Animoca Brands and Currenc Group (NASDAQ: CURR) said in a joint statement on Animoca’s website that a review found the time still required to close the transaction no longer fit “evolving market conditions.” For institutional investors tracking crypto-adjacent equities, the halt removes, at least temporarily, one of the few pending paths for a large private Web3 holding company to reach a US-listed shell.

Merger Would Have Handed Animoca 95% of a Nasdaq Shell

Currenc first announced the proposed reverse merger on November 3, 2025, structured as an acquisition of all Animoca shares through an Australian scheme of arrangement. Under the original terms, Animoca shareholders would have ended up with about 95% of the combined company against roughly 5% for existing Currenc holders, a split that would have effectively made Currenc the listing vehicle for Animoca’s operations.

The merged company would have kept the Animoca Brands name. It would also have given Nasdaq investors indirect exposure to a portfolio spanning more than 600 digital-asset companies.

In May, Currenc said closing was targeted for the third quarter of 2026, after both sides extended an exclusivity window through June 30, 2026 and set a long-stop date of December 31. That runway proved insufficient once the companies’ review flagged the misalignment between the remaining deal timeline and current conditions, according to the joint statement.

Siu Points to Audit Work as Animoca Keeps Options Open

Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu has said the company will continue pursuing routes to a public listing as it works through the audit and compliance steps a major exchange demands.

continue to pursue optimal routes to a public listing

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman, Animoca Brands

Animoca published its 2023 annual audit on July 17, its second such release in 2026, and said preparation for the 2024 audit is underway. The company was convicted and fined by Australia’s securities regulator in 2022 over unlodged annual reports covering 2019 through 2021.

Currenc Keeps Tokenizing Shares Without Animoca

Currenc has continued building its own tokenization business independent of the merger talks. In April, it became one of the first Nasdaq-listed firms to put its own ordinary shares on-chain, tokenizing CURR stock on Ethereum and Solana through Securitize. Earlier this month, its Currenc Capital subsidiary signed a consulting agreement to help Nasdaq-listed Mint tokenize a portion of its shares.

That environment gives Animoca more potential paths to a listing than it had in 2020, even without the Currenc shell.

The CCS read. Currenc walks away with a working tokenization business and a Mint consulting deal, so the suspended merger costs it little. Animoca loses its shortcut but keeps its audit work moving, meaning any future listing attempt will likely come through a fresh vehicle rather than a revived Currenc deal, once compliance catches up to ambition.

Neither company has set a new date for resuming talks, and the joint statement conditions any revival on unspecified market conditions improving. The next signal to watch is Animoca’s 2024 audit, now in preparation, which Siu has framed as the prerequisite for any fresh push toward a public listing.