Interactive Brokers opens Hong Kong retail trade with OSL.

Interactive Brokers, one of the largest brokerage firms in the world, has opened crypto trading for retail clients in Hong Kong.

According to the November 28 announcement, the service will be offered in partnership with OSL, one of the first crypto exchanges to accept a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in Hong Kong. “Retail investors of interactive brokers in Hong Kong now have instant access to digital asset trading through a unified platform powered by OSL,” the developers wrote.

Through the website of Hong Kong Interactive Brokers, clients can hold Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) in their personal accounts along with stocks, derivatives, commodities, forex and other assets. Each trade pays a commission equal to 0.20% to 0.30% of the transaction value.

Last week, Cointelegraph reported that Interactive Brokers had obtained a license for retail virtual asset trading in Hong Kong. However, the license is currently limited to the company that trades in Bitcoin and Ether.

On November 14, BC Technology Group, which is owned by OSL Exchange, announced that it has received a $90-million equity investment from blockchain company BGX. The company previously considered selling the OSL exchange for 1 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $128 million.

Although Hong Kong was one of the first provinces to license cryptocurrency exchanges, the momentum has been somewhat dampened by a series of exchange scandals. In September, JPEX, one of the region's largest crypto exchanges, collapsed, leading to the arrest of 66 people and losses of 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($205 million). In the year On November 25, Hounax, another unlicensed crypto exchange in Hong Kong, was reported to have defrauded 145 residents out of 148 million HKD ($18.9 million) in a Ponzi scheme.

Related: Hong Kong authorities say 145 victims lost $18.9m in Hounax scam