Hong Kong steps up its game to compete with Singapore and the UAE as a leading hub for regulated crypto.
AMINA has become the first international banking group authorised in Hong Kong to offer regulated crypto spot trading and asset safeguarding.
The announcement, made on November 17, expands the firm’s permissions to include digital-asset dealing for professional investors. The move opens access for institutions, corporates, family offices and high-net-worth clients who want to trade crypto within Hong Kong’s regulatory framework.
Following the approval from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), AMINA can now operate 24/7 trading and custody, as well as enable crypto deposits and withdrawals through whitelisted wallet addresses.
“This milestone enables us to expand our crypto product shelf including private fund management, structured products, derivatives, and tokenised real-world assets — all delivered through the regulated framework that our professional investor community demands,” said Michael Benz, Head of AMINA Hong Kong and APAC.
The firm will launch with 13 supported assets, including bitcoin, ether and major stablecoins, and says its infrastructure is designed to meet institutional execution standards.
About more than filling a gap
AMINA’s announcement repeatedly highlighted how its new permissions help fill a gap in Hong Kong’s crypto market.
Even though the city has one of Asia’s most defined regulatory frameworks for digital assets, professional investors have had limited access to locally regulated, institutional-level crypto services without turning to offshore providers.
This gap largely came from how Hong Kong’s rules developed, with the SFC focused on retail investor protection and licensing crypto exchanges, but the options available for institutions remained hard to come by.
Key services, such as bank-grade custody, structured crypto products, derivatives and tokenised assets, were not widely offered under local licences, even as demand from institutions grew.
Many professional investors turned to international providers as a result, creating challenges around onboarding, compliance and day-to-day operations, and made it harder to run crypto activities within Hong Kong’s regulated financial system.
AMINA’s new permissions suggest this gap is now starting to close, as well as see Hong Kong beginning to rival Singapore, which is often considered the region’s leading digital-asset hub.
Be careful what you wish for
Singapore’s rise as a global centre for digital assets has been built on strict standards and early regulatory leadership. The country has influenced international rules for stablecoins and tokenised assets, and in the Global Digital Assets Report 2025 it was ranked alongside the UAE and Switzerland as one of the world’s top regulators.
However, its reputation has also attracted less welcome attention, as financial crime has become a major concern, fuelled in part by the nature of crypto activity.
During a recent parliamentary debate, Senior Minister of State Sim Ann revealed scams now account for 60% of all reported crimes in Singapore. Between 2020 and the first half of 2025, authorities logged around 190,000 scam cases, with losses estimated at S$3.7bn (US$2.7bn).
Lawmakers repeatedly cited Cambodia as a base for cross-border fraud networks. The country has gained a reputation for crypto-linked investment scams, and US regulators recently cut off Cambodia’s Huione Group from the American financial system over alleged money-laundering ties.
Amid growing public pressure, Singapore has started taking a tougher stance. A new bill passed on November 4 allows courts to impose caning on convicted scammers, with between six and 24 strokes depending on the severity of the offence.
