Interactive Brokers opens Hong Kong retail crypto buying and selling with OSL

Interactive Brokers, one of many largest brokerage companies on this planet, has opened crypto buying and selling for retail purchasers in Hong Kong.

In response to the Nov28 announcement, the service is obtainable along with OSL, one of many first crypto exchanges to obtain a Digital Asset Service Supplier (VASP) in Hong Kong. “Interactive Brokers’ retail buyers in Hong Kong now have fast entry to digital asset buying and selling by way of a single unified platform powered by OSL,” builders wrote. 

Per its web site, Hong Kong purchasers of Interactive Brokers can maintain Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) of their private accounts alongside shares, derivatives, commodities, foreign exchange, and different belongings. Every commerce is charged a fee equal to 0.20% to 0.30% of the transaction worth.

Final week, Cointelegraph reported that Interactive Brokers had obtained a license for retail digital asset buying and selling in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, the license solely grants the agency to dealer trades of Bitcoin and Ethereum in the meanwhile. 

On Novembe 14, BC Expertise Group, owned of the OSL trade, introduced it had obtained a $90 million equity investment from blockchain agency BGX. The agency had beforehand thought of promoting the OSL trade for $1 billion Hong Kong {dollars}, or $128 million. 

Though Hong Kong was one of many first jurisdictions to subject licenses for cryptocurrency exchanges, momentum has been considerably stifled by a sequence of trade scandals. In September, JPEX, one of many area’s largest crypto exchanges, collapsed, resulting in 66 arrests and an estimated 1.6 billion Hong Kong {dollars} ($205 million) in losses. On Nov 25, Hounax, one other unlicensed crypto trade in Hong Kong, reportedly scammed 145 residents out of 148 million HKD ($18.9 million) by way of an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Associated: ​​Hong Kong authorities say 145 victims, $18.9M lost in Hounax scam