Staff reporter
Hong Kong digital bank ZA starts offering services today that allow all retail investors in the city to directly trade two cryptocurrencies as bitcoin nears US$100,000 (HK$780,000) after the election of Donald Trump as US president.
The new service falls under ZA’s collaboration with HashKey, one of only three licensed virtual asset trading platforms approved by the Securities and Futures Commission.
From today, ZA’s retail clients can trade Bitcoin and ethereum 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the bank, with a minimum transaction amount of US$70 or HK$600 per transaction, said the bank’s alternate chief executive Calvin Ng Chung-ho.
ZA is waiving commissions until the end of June next year but will charge 0.8 percent of the transaction turnover as platform fees, higher than major online broker Futu’s 0.08 percent and Tiger’s 0.05 percent.
After June, the platform fee will be raised to 1.5 percent of the turnover and the commission will be fixed at US$1.99 or HK$15 for each transaction.
The cryptocurrency trading is open to all Hong Kong-resident customers, including nonpermanent residents, Ng added.
Hashkey chief analyst Jeffrey Ding expects Bitcoin to continue to climb after it has gained over 43 percent since Trump’s sweeping election win on November 5 and his nomination of Scott Bessent – a pro-crypto hedge fund manager – for Treasury secretary. In addition, Trump is considering to create the first-ever White House cryptocurrency role.
Bitcoin retreated slightly by 0.4 percent to US$97,366 apiece yesterday at 8.13pm in Hong Kong after touching a fresh record high of US$99,655 on Friday.
Ding said the ongoing surge coincides with bitcoin’s halving – when the number of new bitcoins that are mined is cut in half. The next halving will be in 2028.
Moreover, Ding warned that the inflation problem in the US will be difficult to solve or it may lead to a financial or social crisis. In those circumstances, bitcoin will not be able to stand on its own, and this black swan may appear next year, Ding added.
Since Hong Kong announced its ambition of becoming a virtual asset trading hub in 2022, SFC only granted licenses to three platforms – Hashkey, OSL Exchange and HKVAX.
SFC said in late October that the final list of platforms that will be upgraded from provisional to full licenses will be announced before the end of the year, hinting that more virtual asset exchange applicants would emerge.
There are also 30 institutions allowed to offer virtual asset trading services under their omnibus account arrangements, with ZA Bank the only one holding the relevant license in the name of a bank for the time being.
Ng said that virtual asset trading is “a must” for ZA and the bank will cover more cryptocurrencies in the future, adding that he hoped the new business could help it break even more quickly.