The SFC has granted multiple licenses since the city opened doors to retail crypto trading last August.
Less than a year after Hong Kong regulators approved crypto exchanges, traditional financial institutions and brokerages alike have been keen to obtain their digital asset licenses for trading.
In January, Chinese stock brokerage Tiger Brokers upgraded its Type 1 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) to include crypto trading for professional investors and financial institutions based in Hong Kong. In an interview with Cointelegraph, John Fei Zeng, chief financial officer and director of Tiger Brokers, explained that the firm currently has 865,500 funded accounts with a combined $18.9 billion in managed assets.
"Currently, Tiger Brokers (HK) has uplifted its license to trade virtual assets for professional investor clients through a SFC-licensed virtual assets platform and will accept retail clients after SFC's approval," said Feng. "Residents of Hong Kong will be able to trade virtual assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside stocks, options, futures, funds, and ETFs [Through Tiger Trade]."
