Gate Group has established its presence in Hong Kong by launching Gate.HK, a holistic virtual asset trading facilitator.
Gate Group recently launched a new virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong to provide top-notch service quality to users. The new Hong Kong service, Gate.HK, opened for registration and trading services on Tuesday, offering a wide range of features. These include virtual asset deposits and withdrawals, and spot trading on Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC).
With Gate.HK, Gate Group seeks to provide holistic virtual asset trading services that cater to a wide range of retail users and professional investors. Furthermore, the company behind the Gate.io crypto exchange plans to roll out more trading services on the new platform. According to Gate Group, the projected expanded capabilities of Gate.HK will provide users with a more extensive array of services tailored to their needs. In addition, the leading virtual asset trading facilitator also said all upcoming products and services would meet Hong Kong regulatory requirements.
Gate.HK’s launch follows Gate Group’s recent announcement that the Hong Kong-based service sought licensing from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). In February, Gate.io announced its intention to venture into Hong Kong following the city’s 50 million Hong Kong dollars ($6.4 million) budget allocation to Web3.
Gate Group Founder Sees Hong Kong as Veritable Virtual Trading Playground
Gate Group’s founder, Han Lin, described Hong Kong as a “global strategic market” due to its sophisticated regulatory regime. In addition, Lin called the administrative city a “hub” as his company prepared to establish its presence. Gate’s local company Hippo Financial Services, obtained a Trust and Corporate Service Provider (TCSP) license in August 2022. On February 21st, Lin touched on the full-circle moment, with Gate still preparing to launch Gate.HK at the time. In a tweet from three months ago, the company’s founder enthused:
“Very excited about Hong Kong. Having obtained the TCSP License in HK, Gate Group is also preparing for a crypto license and fine-tuning Gate HK, a new entity tailored to serve HK’s growing crypto market. Stay tuned.”
Meanwhile, around the same time, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan outlined the city’s Web3 support plans. In a February 22nd budget speech, Chan described Web3 as having tremendous potential and stressed the need for Hong Kong to embrace it continually. According to the city official:
“We must keep up with the times and seize this golden opportunity to spearhead innovation development.”
Virtual Asset Trading Service Comes amid Similar ZA Bank Plans
The launch of Gate’s new virtual asset trading platform comes as ZA Bank plans to offer similar services in Hong Kong. The Chinese special administrative city’s virtual bank recently announced plans as part of its diversification strategy. ZA Bank’s announcement came the day after the SFC released its new guidelines regarding accepting retail virtual asset trading license applications.
ZA Bank will reportedly partner with locally-licensed digital asset exchanges to secure regulatory approvals. The bank’s customers would then be privy to virtual asset trades via fiat currency within the ZA Bank App once permissions are in place.
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