The transparency of the Hong Kong exchange license attracts traditional brokers

Less than a year after Hong Kong regulators approved crypto exchanges, traditional financial institutions and brokers are interested in obtaining licenses to trade digital assets.

In January, Chinese stockbroker Tiger Brokers Type 1 Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) reformed to include crypto trading for professional investors and financial institutions in Hong Kong. John Fei Zheng, chief financial officer and director of Tiger Brokers, explained in an interview with Cointelegraph that the firm currently has 865,500 funded accounts with a total of $18.9 billion in assets under management.

“Currently, Tiger Brokers (HK) has raised its license to trade virtual assets for professional investor clients through the SFC-licensed virtual assets platform, and will accept retail clients after SFC approval,” Feng said. Hong Kong residents can trade virtual assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum along with stocks, options, futures, funds and ETFs. [Through Tiger Trade].”

The firm is currently evaluating additional digital assets such as altcoins to list as subject to regulatory approval alongside its global expansion strategy in licensed markets such as Australia, the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Feng said:

“In addition to stocks and options, crypto is becoming an important asset class. So it's a natural extension of our broker-dealer business to add a new asset class, and the core Web3 technology is integrated with Tiger's Fintech background.”

Similarly, last November, Hong Kong broker Victory Securities received permission from the SFC to offer crypto trading services to retail investors. According to the company's data, in the third quarter of this year, the volume of virtual property transactions and the number of new customers doubled compared to the previous quarter. “To encourage new customers to choose compliant and secure virtual property trading services, we are launching several business offers. [in the future].”

Likewise, licensed Hong Kong crypto exchange OSL has partnered with Interactive Brokers to open the latter's Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading platform to retail investors on November 28, 2023. On February 1, Cointelegraph reported that crypto exchange Bybit has filed for a retail license in Hong Kong. Currently, Web3 companies may need to spend up to $25 million to invest in corporate infrastructure and regulatory compliance.

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