The biggest virtual bank in Hong Kong, ZA Bank, has introduced a new service that lets regular people purchase and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum with fiat money.
Residents of Hong Kong must have an account with the bank and complete a risk assessment prior to utilizing the new cryptocurrency service connected to the bank’s app, the bank stated in a statement dated November 25. Users can only purchase Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) through ZA Bank. There was no mention of any other cryptocurrencies.
The biggest virtual bank in Hong Kong now allows retail customers to purchase Bitcoin and Ether. They must have an account and go through a risk analysis.
According to Calvin Ng, ZA Bank’s alternate chief executive, the service was introduced in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange HashKey in order to comply with legal requirements and advance the integration of traditional banking and cryptocurrency.
According to Ng, the emergence of cryptocurrencies offers investors a wider range of options for allocating their assets. The exchange will continue to work “closely with ZA Bank to drive the development of the Web3 ecosystem” and provide “diversified financial services to our users,” according to Livio Weng, CEO of HashKey Exchange. In October, ZA Bank opened a sandbox trial for its online asset trading platform.
In Hong Kong, retail cryptocurrency trading didn’t start until August 2023. The Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Hong Kong’s financial regulator, currently only licenses three exchanges. Licenses were granted to cryptocurrency exchanges OSL and HashKey in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
In October, the Hong Kong Virtual Asset Exchange (HKVAX) rose to the third position. The SFC has raised the prospect that additional licenses for digital asset companies and cryptocurrency exchanges doing business in the area will probably be granted by the year’s end. ZA Bank became the first and biggest digital bank in Hong Kong after receiving a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in 2019. More than 800,000 people use ZA Bank. In 2018, HashKey was created.
