BIT has opened Hong Kong stock trading through a service branded “BIT Securities,” extending its stablecoin-funded brokerage offering from U.S. markets to securities listed in Hong Kong, including Main Board and Growth Enterprise Market shares, initial public offerings, margin financing and stock transfers.
The Oct. 12 launch gives eligible BIT users a route to trade Hong Kong equities with USDT or USDC deposits rather than converting digital assets into fiat currency before placing orders. Existing users of the platform’s U.S. stock account can activate Hong Kong share trading within the same account structure, according to BIT.
The service is not available to Hong Kong residents or people located in Hong Kong. BIT also cautioned that crypto assets, stocks, options and margin products carry a risk of total loss, while stablecoins can lose their peg to the currencies they are designed to track.
Hong Kong equities join U.S. stocks and options
Hong Kong is BIT’s third broker-linked securities expansion cited by the company in 2026. The platform introduced stablecoin-funded U.S. stock trading on Feb. 3 through licensed broker connections, added margin trading to public testing on June 26, and later launched short-selling features and U.S.-listed stock options.
The addition of Hong Kong shares broadens the platform’s product set beyond crypto spot and perpetual markets. BIT now describes its offering as including U.S. equities and options, Hong Kong equities, over-the-counter services, wealth products and asset management.
The company, formerly known as Matrixport, was founded in 2019 and rebranded as BIT earlier this year. It says its platform has monthly trading volume exceeding $7 billion, while custody and assets under management exceed $6 billion. BIT also reports more than $2 billion in cumulative interest paid, though the company did not provide a period or methodology for that figure in the launch materials.
The product structure places stablecoins at the center of the trading experience. A user who deposits USDT or USDC can allocate capital between crypto products and eligible securities markets without opening separate accounts for each market. That setup could be attractive to traders whose balances are already held in stablecoins and who would otherwise need a bank transfer and currency conversion before accessing an equity broker.
Hong Kong’s cash market operates from 9:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. local time, or 5.5 hours in total. BIT said its U.S. equity offering covers roughly 6.5 hours of regular-market trading. The limited overlap between those sessions gives users access to approximately 12 hours of stock-market trading across the two regions, while crypto and perpetual products remain available outside those periods. Stablecoin deposits and withdrawals are processed around the clock, BIT said.
Licensed entities underpin the brokerage model
BIT distinguishes its service from tokenized stock products and stock-linked perpetual contracts, which have been the more common route for crypto-native platforms to offer exposure to Hong Kong-listed companies.
Tokenized shares and perpetuals can track an underlying stock’s price, but the legal asset held by the customer, shareholder rights, settlement arrangements and trading constraints can differ sharply from a directly executed brokerage transaction. IPO subscriptions and stock transfers also require brokerage, custody and settlement arrangements that are generally absent from simple price-tracking products.
For its U.S. stock service, BIT said it works with Clear Street, RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities for broker-dealer, clearing and custody functions. All three firms’ registrations can be checked through FINRA’s BrokerCheck database.
The Hong Kong service is provided through Atomic Vaults Asia, which BIT said holds a Type 1 license from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for dealing in securities. Under Hong Kong’s licensing framework, a Type 1 corporation generally must maintain at least HK$5 million in paid-up share capital and HK$3 million in liquid capital. The paid-up-capital requirement rises to HK$10 million when a firm provides securities margin financing. Client money must also be held in segregated accounts.
Those requirements matter for a service combining stablecoin funding with conventional securities trading. The stablecoin deposit may begin on a digital-asset platform, but execution, custody and client-asset protections for the securities side depend on the regulated intermediaries handling the transaction.
IPO access arrives during a strong year for listings
The launch also arrives during a busy period for Hong Kong IPOs. Deloitte projected on Sept. 24 that Hong Kong would record about 116 new listings, including expected deals, during the first three quarters of 2026, raising approximately HK$387.9 billion. Deloitte ranked the market second globally by IPO fundraising over that period.
The projected fundraising amount represented a 112% increase from a year earlier, while the number of listings was expected to rise 76%, Deloitte said. For the full year, the accounting firm forecast at least HK$480 billion in proceeds from around 160 listings.
BIT’s inclusion of IPO subscriptions seeks to address a gap in many crypto-adjacent Hong Kong equity products. Some existing offerings have limited their IPO availability to selected deals and have disclosed service charges ranging from 5% to 15%. A broker-linked service could provide a broader framework for participating in listings, though access will remain subject to eligibility, allocation rules and the terms set for each offering.
Options and margin add complexity
BIT’s rollout of stock options and margin trading also places it in a more regulated and operationally demanding corner of the digital-asset market. Listed U.S. equity options rely on market data from the Options Price Reporting Authority, clearing through the Options Clearing Corporation, and suitability processes performed by brokers. These functions cannot be reproduced solely through an internal platform ledger.
The scale of the listed options market helps explain why platforms have pursued the product. The Options Clearing Corporation reported 15.21 billion cleared U.S. options contracts in 2025, up 24.4% from the prior year. Average daily volume reached about 70.5 million contracts from January through August 2026, a 22.7% year-on-year increase, according to the OCC.
Margin and options also introduce risks beyond the price movements of the underlying shares. Borrowed funds can magnify losses and trigger liquidation, while option contracts can expire worthless. BIT’s disclosure states that users may lose their entire principal.
Regulatory attention is also increasingly focused on whether stock-related tokens provide the rights associated with actual ownership. In a Sept. 17 policy reference, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission described an innovation exemption proposal for on-chain platforms handling tokenized U.S. stocks. The framework cited by BIT would require tokens to convey genuine shareholder rights, excluding synthetic products designed only to mirror a share price.
BIT’s Hong Kong launch therefore adds a conventional brokerage layer to a platform built around digital-asset funding. The model gives eligible stablecoin holders access to corporate shares, IPOs and derivatives through licensed market infrastructure, while leaving users exposed to the separate risks of stablecoins, securities markets and leveraged trading.
Want to connect crypto with stocks? Explore tokenized equities and how they compare to broker-linked stock access.
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