The largest digital bank in Hong Kong, ZA Bank, has announced that they will provide crypto trading options to their retail customers. This measure will provide users the opportunity to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in US and Hong Kong dollars.
On Monday, ZA Bank announced in a press release that a Hong Kong Association of Banks has found that 70% of people consider bank-backed crypto services as an effective way to simplify transactions and facilitate digital assets adoption.
This provided crypto users the option to begin trading at a $70 deposit and gradually make their way to profit as they benefit from 0% commission in the first 3 months.
ZA Bank is collaborating with one of Hong Kong's licensed crypto platforms Hashkey Exchange for regulatory compliance. This is in line with Hong Kong's goal of turning itself into a regional cryptocurrency hub as the sector grows globally. The crypto industry crossed the 560 million users mark in mid-2024.
However, the ZA Bank’s services go beyond crypto services as it also provides access to US stocks and funds.
Earlier in September, ZA Bank got the nod from the Securities Regulatory Commission of China which allowed the company to add new virtual asset transactions options to its Type 1 license. This has made ZA Bank, Hong Kong's first digital-only bank to have a Type 1 regulated activity license from the Securities and Futures Commission.
In 2022, Hong Kong made it mandatory for crypto exchanges to get licenses. This compliance requirement has to be fulfilled by February 2024.
More than 24 companies applied for licenses, but half of them, including OKX, Huobi HK and Bybit withdrew their applications by August. This shows the challenging and complex nature of the crypto regulation in the city.
As of November 25 morning, Bitcoin was trading at $98564, up 0.62% in the last 24 hours with a 37.78% increase in its trading volume which stood at $58.12 billion and the market cap rose to $1.95 trillion. Meanwhile, Ethereum was up by 3.79% in the last 24 hours to trade at $3517 while its trading volume declined 3.16% to $32.76 billion and the market cap rose to $423.40 billion.