Futu Securities International, a major online brokerage in Hong Kong, started offering cryptocurrency trading services to its retail clients on Thursday as the company seeks to expand into the crypto sector.
Futu said in a statement that it allows Hong Kong investors to trade bitcoin and ether directly with Hong Kong dollars or U.S. dollars. “We noticed a relatively positive market response on the first day when our crypto trading services went live,” Steve Zeng, managing director of Futu Group, told The Block on Friday.
The company said that it is the first online brokerage in Hong Kong to offer zero-commission crypto trading. It also intends to incentivize users by giving away bitcoin, as well as shares of Alibaba and Nvidia, to certain users who open accounts and hold their assets for a sufficient period.
In a bid to offer crypto services, Futu received a license upgrade from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, allowing the firm to offer crypto services to qualified retail investors. The SFC stipulates that institutions like Futu must route their services through the two licensed crypto trading platforms — namely HashKey and OSL. Futu currently partners with HashKey to facilitate crypto trading.
Futu, meanwhile, is applying for an SFC license to operate as a virtual asset trading platform through a wholly-owned subsidiary, PantherTrade. The SFC has placed PantherTrade on its list of “deemed-to-be-licensed” applicants, according to the regulatory's website.
Established in 2012, Futu Holdings went public on the Nasdaq in March 2019 and has expanded its services globally. Its Singapore subsidiary, Moomoo, received a full Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore earlier this year, allowing it to offer crypto trading services to local investors.
Unlike its neighboring Chinese mainland's broader crackdown on crypto trading and mining, Hong Kong rolled out the welcome mat for crypto firms last year. In June 2023, Hong Kong officially started its crypto licensing regime for crypto trading platforms, allowing licensed exchanges to offer retail trading services.
However, Duncan Chiu, a Hong Kong lawmaker, has raised concerns over the “excessively stringent” licensing regulations, criticizing that the rules have pushed major global exchanges away from entering Hong Kong. Many global exchanges — including OKX, Gate.io and HTX — have withdrawn their license applications in Hong Kong.