Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has begun offering cryptocurrency trading to professional investors in Hong Kong in partnership with crypto exchange OSL Digital Securities.
Eligible clients include individuals with over 8 million Hong Kong dollars ($1 million) in investable assets and institutions with over 40 million Hong Kong dollars ($5 million).
Interactive Brokers and OSL’s aim is to allow clients to invest in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) via a single platform alongside stock, options, futures, bonds and so on.
The two firms teamed up to introduce crypto trading in Hong Kong last June, citing the city’s high concentration of institutional and professional investors.
Mixed signals have come out of Hong Kong in recent months regarding its future regulatory environment for crypto. Its Financial Services and Treasury Bureau said in October that it was exploring allowing retail customers to trade crypto or approving a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF).
However, in November, Julia Leung (then the deputy CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission, and now the CEO) called for tougher rules on crypto firms, highlighting how FTX’s collapse demonstrated the threat that digital assets could pose due to links with traditional financial services.
