On May 7, 2025, a significant piece of news spread in the Hong Kong financial circle: the well-known financial technology company Futu Securities officially launched deposit services for BTC, ETH, and USDT on its core trading platform Futu Niuiu, which is viewed by the outside world as an important step for traditional licensed brokers in the virtual asset field.
Futu Officially Embraces Crypto Assets
Futu Holdings was established in 2012 and is a digital securities brokerage and wealth management service provider in Hong Kong. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, Futu has over 34 million registered users globally, with approximately 2.5 million paid users, of which Hong Kong users cover more than half of the local adult population.
Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, as a licensed broker in Hong Kong, holds SFC licenses No. 1, 4, and 9, and its business is strictly regulated. In the past two years, Hong Kong's regulatory environment for virtual assets has gradually become clearer and tends to be more open, especially with the VATP license system introduced in 2023, which provides possibilities for compliant platforms to serve retail investors.
Panther Trade, under Futu Holdings, obtained the VATP license from the Hong Kong SFC in January 2025. This time, Futu Securities' crypto asset deposit service is achieved through cooperation with another Hong Kong SFC-licensed VATP platform, Hash Blockchain Limited (license number BPL992), complying with AML/CTF standards and investor protection requirements.
Who Will Benefit? Possibly Not Retail Investors
Futu's newly launched cryptocurrency deposit service opens up new opportunities for different types of investors. For traditional stock investors on Futu Niuiu, this means they can conveniently incorporate crypto assets into their investment portfolio, lowering the entry barrier to the crypto market and enabling risk hedging using stock and crypto market characteristics. For professional investors, the USDT deposit function provides an efficient fund transfer channel.
It can be seen that Futu draws from the successful experiences of overseas brokers like Robinhood, attracting young and high-net-worth users (USDT deposit requires professional investor qualifications, with a need to provide proof of HK$8 million in assets, restricting ordinary retail investors). For existing crypto traders, leveraging Futu's brand and compliance background, the deposit services for mainstream cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, USDT) offer higher compliance protection compared to pure crypto exchanges.
