Digital Assets: Hong Kong The New Mecca For Crypto Providers?
Interactive Brokers and DBS to unveil crypto trading in Hong Kong. Meanwhile Bakkt is sunsetting its consumer app.
DBS
DBS (SGX: D05), the largest bank in Southeast Asia, plans to expand its crypto services in Hong Kong by applying for a license to sell digital assets to its Hong Kong customers.
The bank is supportive of Hong Kong’s recent policy shift and will participate in crypto trading once regulations around crypto assets in Hong Kong are clear.
DBS has already launched a full-service bitcoin exchange in Singapore for institutional investors, obtained a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide crypto services, and entered the metaverse in September 2022. (Bitcoin.com)
IB
Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ: IBKR) has launched its crypto trading services for institutional clients in Hong Kong in association with OSL Digital Securities.
Individuals with over $1 million in investable assets and institutions with $6 million in Hong Kong can now trade cryptocurrencies on the Interactive Brokers platform alongside other asset classes.
The launch comes at a critical juncture in Hong Kong’s regulated digital asset market development, with the government expressing openness to working with cryptocurrency and fintech businesses in 2023 and approving a licensing scheme for virtual asset-related services in December 2022.
Interactive Brokers’ centralized cash management allows for trading of stocks, options, futures, bonds, event contracts, mutual funds, ETFs, and Bitcoin through a single screen. (COIN TELEGRAPH)
Bakkt
Bakkt Holdings (NYSE: BKKT), which offers a platform for cryptocurrency, loyalty, and commerce, will discontinue its consumer-facing app and focus on providing scalable B2B technology solutions for businesses.
The company’s core focus now is to offer crypto and loyalty experiences for their clients’ customers through SaaS and API solutions on a secure and compliant platform. The move is in line with the company’s B2B2C (“business-to-business-to-consumer”) strategy to provide seamless solutions to its partners and clients that best serve their needs.
The pending acquisition of Apex Crypto from Apex Fintech Solutions also supports Bakkt’s B2B2C approach of bringing crypto products to a broad range of client verticals.
Current Bakkt app users will still be able to access their crypto and cash on the platform via a new web experience.
The consumer app will officially sunset on March 16, 2023. (Bitcoin.com)
Related Story: Interactive Brokers Offers Low-Fee Crypto Trading
Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay
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