Hong Kong’s ZA Bank to Provide Bitcoin and Ethereum Trading Services to Retail Users

Hong Kong’s ZhongAn (ZA) Bank will provide trading of two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, in Hong Kong dollars and US dollars on its banking app.

Hong Kong’s ZhongAn (ZA) Bank has announced the launch of cryptocurrency trading services for retail users in Hong Kong. The bank will offer trading of two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, in both Hong Kong dollars and US dollars on its banking app.

This marks the first time a bank in Asia has offered cryptocurrency trading services to retail customers. The service is expected to be available by the end of the year.

To be eligible for ZA Bank’s Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services, one needs to be a ZA Bank customer. After opening an investment account with ZA Bank, Hong Kong residents are required to complete a risk assessment and other processes before they can buy and sell the BTC and ETH.

The entry fee is US$70 or HK$600, and the commission for each transaction is US$1.99 /HK$15. The platform fee is 1.5% of the transaction amount (the minimum fee for each transaction is US$1.99 or HK$15). The bank will reportedly waive the commission by the end of June next year, and the platform fee will also be reduced to 0.8% of the transaction amount.

Ng said that Hong Kong only provided retail investors with virtual currency trading services last year and the bank has been preparing for the service for nearly a year. In addition to compliance standards, trading will be a 24-hour transaction for stable and guaranteed service. Due to the high risk level of assets, marketing promotion will also focus on customer education.

ZA bank has also been actively developing technologies such as blockchain, hoping to better serve the Web3 ecosystem.

At present, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has launched four currencies for retail investors to trade. Ng said that he has been communicating with the regulatory authorities, for launching Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions first, and will gradually add the remaining crypto currencies in the future. He also pointed out after deploying its virtual currency trading business, the bank hopes to increase fee income and attract new customers, which will play a positive role in turning losses into profits.

Ding Zhaofei, chief analyst of HashKey Group, which cooperates with ZA Bank to launch related services, believes that under the “Trump deal”, the price of Bitcoin is expected to rise above $100,000 in the short term, but the future may not be optimistic. If the overall inflation issues persist in the United States, then Bitcoin will not be able to survive alone.