Online brokerage Futu offers crypto trading in Hong Kong, with Nvidia, Alibaba stock as reward

Futu Securities is the largest online brokerage to directly sell crypto to retail investors, and it is rewarding early users with tech stocks or bitcoin

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Futu’s bull mascot seen at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen on December 9, 2020. Photo: Iris Ouyang

Xinmei Shen

Published: 5:59pm, 1 Aug 2024Updated: 6:06pm, 2 Aug 2024

Corrected [6:04pm, 2 Aug, 2024]

[6:04pm, 2 Aug, 2024]
The 11th paragraph has been corrected to state Futu is the largest online brokerage to serve retail cryptocurrency traders, not the first.

Futu Securities International, Hong Kong’s largest online broker, has launched retail cryptocurrency trading in the city, offering shares of Alibaba Group Holding and Nvidia as a reward in an attempt to attract investors.

Futu has started allowing Hong Kong residents to trade bitcoin and ether, the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies, directly on the brokerage platform using either Hong Kong or US dollars, the company announced on Thursday.

The online retail broker said last month that it had received a securities licence upgrade from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), allowing Futu to offer virtual asset dealing services to both professional and retail customers in the city.

Futu’s move comes amid Hong Kong’s push to boost its attractiveness as a virtual asset business hub, which has seen the city’s government launch a slew of new crypto policy initiatives over the past two years, including a mandatory licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges.

While offering crypto trading on its main brokerage app, Futu is also pursuing a cryptocurrency exchange licence for its new platform PantherTrade. That platform is among 11 in Hong Kong that are currently “deemed to be licensed” for trading crypto, an arrangement that allows them to operate in the city as they await full approval from the SFC.

Hong Kong’s progress in becoming a crypto hub has met various challenges, including the exit of large global platforms and relatively low trading activity for the crypto exchange-traded funds offered on the local stock exchange.