Interactive Brokers, a US-based automated global electronic broker, has been approved toprovide crypto trading services in Hong Kong.

"nteractive Brokers Hong Kong is now licensed in Hong Kong to allow trading of virtual assetscurrently Bitcoin and Ethereum) by retail clients," said David Friedland, Manager Director forAsia Pacific at Interactive Brokers, in his Linkedln post two days ago

In addition, Victory Securities, a long-established investment company in Hong Kong, alsoannounced last Friday that it has joined crypto-native firms HashKey Exchange and OSL DigitaSecurities with a license.

Since August this year, when Hong Kong opened crypto trading to retail investors, more andmore crypto exchanges or financial companies offering crypto trading services are seekinglocal licenses to expand their business. Crypto firms such as OKX, Hong Kong Digital Asset EXLimited (HKbitEX), and Hong Kong Virtual Asset Exchange Limited (HKVAX) have submittedtheir applications.

However, according to the Lists of Virtual Asset Trading Platforms published by the Hong KongSecurities and Futures Commission (SFC), only two platforms, OSL Exchange andHashKey Exchange, are currently formally licensed by the regulator.