Interactive Brokers, among the largest brokerage firms on the planet, has opened up crypto buying and selling for retail clients in Hong Kong.
Based on the November. 28 announcement, the services are offered along with OSL, among the first crypto exchanges to get an online Asset Company (VASP) in Hong Kong. “Interactive Brokers’ retail investors in Hong Kong are in possession of access immediately to digital asset buying and selling via a single unified platform operated by OSL,” the developers authored.
Per its website, Hong Kong clients of Interactive Brokers holds Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) within their personal accounts alongside stocks, derivatives, goods, foreign exchange along with other assets. Each trade is billed a commission comparable to .20% to .30% from the transaction value.
A week ago, Cointelegraph reported that Interactive Brokers had received permission for retail virtual asset buying and selling in Hong Kong. However, the license only grants the firm the opportunity to broker trades in Bitcoin and Ether right now.
On November. 14, BC Technology Group, of the OSL exchange, announced it’d received a $90-million equity investment from blockchain firm BGX. The firm had formerly considered selling the OSL exchange for 1 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $128 million.
Although Hong Kong was among the first jurisdictions to issue licenses for cryptocurrency exchanges, momentum continues to be somewhat stifled by a number of exchange scandals. In September, JPEX, among the region’s largest crypto exchanges, collapsed, resulting in 66 arrests as well as an believed 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($205 million) in losses. On November. 25, Hounax, another unlicensed crypto exchange in Hong Kong, apparently scammed 145 residents from 148 million HKD ($18.9 million) with an alleged Ponzi plan.
Related: Hong Kong government bodies say 145 victims, $18.9M lost in Hounax scam
