Hong Kong’s ZA Bank pioneers crypto trading for retail users in Asia

ZA Bank, the largest digital bank in Hong Kong, announced that it would be the first Asian bank to offer crypto buying and selling services to retail users. The bank’s statement said that users would be able to trade BTC and ETH using U.S. dollars or Hong Kong dollars through its app. 

Hong Kong residents will be required to open an investment account with Zhongan Bank and complete a risk assessment, among other processes, before they qualify for trading crypto, according to the bank’s statement. Wu Zhonghao, ZA Bank’s interim CEO, believes that the new service will help drive the bank’s revenue higher with income from the transaction fees. 

ZA Bank partners with HashKey to offer crypto services to HK retail traders 

Hong Kong Bank Just Bridged TradFi And The Blockchain

Hong Kong’s ZA Bank is officially the first in Asia to let retail users trade Bitcoin and Ethereum straight from their app using fiat.

No DEX, no swapping, just seamless, bank-backed crypto trading thanks to their hookup… pic.twitter.com/O2hoZh6T51

— Mario Nawfal’s Roundtable (@RoundtableSpace) November 25, 2024

Digital bank ZA Bank announced a collaboration with the HashKey exchange to provide crypto trading services to Hong Kong retail users. Effective November 25th, ZA Bank users will be able to use the bank’s app to trade Bitcoin and ETH directly in HKD and USD, according to the bank’s statement. The bank disclosed that users would be required to undergo several pre-approval processes, including a risk assessment before they started to trade. 

There would be an ‘entry fee’ of $70 or HK$600, a $1.99 (HK$15) commission fee per transaction, and a platform fee of 1.5% of the transaction amount. However, the statement claimed that the commission would be waived and the platform’s fee would be reduced to 0.8% of the transaction amount by June 2025.

ZA Bank’s Zhonghao said that Hong Kong only started providing retail investors with virtual currency trading services last year. He confirmed that the bank had been preparing for the service for nearly a year now. Zhonghao added that the technology had been tested to ensure the service’s guaranteed reliability around the clock. Notably, he asserted that marketing promotions will be accompanied by user education due to the high risks associated with digital assets. 

Digital assets put digital banks and traditional banks on the same page

ZA Bank’s interim CEO said that banks had provided the same services for many years, but the development of virtual assets had brought digital banks to the same level as traditional banks. He said the bank had also been actively developing blockchain technology to better serve the Web3 ecosystem. Zhonghao believes that combining banking with exchange services will provide a comprehensive one-stop service platform for the bank’s mainly young customer base.

The bank’s statement said that the China Securities Regulatory Commission had launched four currencies for retail investors to trade. Zhonghao disclosed that he had been communicating with the regulatory authorities about adding the other two currencies to its BTC and ETH offerings. He pointed out that the deployment of its crypto trades for retail traders would help the bank turn losses into profits as it focused on attracting new customers to increase fee revenue.

HashKey’s chief analyst, Ding Zhaofei, believes that Bitcoin’s price will break above $100K in the short term due to Trump’s influence, but it will be difficult to maintain that price. He speculated that inflationary problems may impact the U.S. financial market in ways that make it difficult to predict Bitcoin’s future.

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