Hong Kong Approves First Broker to Buy and Sell Crypto
Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of Guotai Junan International, has become the first Chinese mainland brokerage in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to receive regulatory approval for offering virtual asset trading services.
According to the information, the milestone approval was granted by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Tuesday. It upgrades the firm’s existing Type 1 license, which allows dealing in securities, to now include the provision of crypto trading services under an omnibus account arrangement with SFC-licensed virtual asset platforms.
This regulatory green light enables Guotai Junan Securities’ clients to trade leading digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins via the firm’s platform. It marks a significant step in Hong Kong’s efforts to expand institutional access to regulated crypto markets and further positions the city as a gateway for digital asset adoption in Asia.
The move also signals growing alignment between mainland Chinese financial institutions and Hong Kong’s evolving digital finance framework.
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
