Author: Wealth Chinese Network
The popularity of stablecoins is continuously rising globally, and the recent new licenses obtained by Chinese securities firms have added fuel to the fire.
On June 24, Guotai Junan International officially received approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to upgrade its existing securities trading license to provide virtual asset trading services, becoming the first Hong Kong-based Chinese securities firm with comprehensive virtual asset service capabilities. Following this news, its stock price surged nearly 200% on June 25, driving the Hong Kong Chinese securities firm index to rise over 11% in a single day.
Clearly, this breakthrough is a key step for financial institutions to deeply engage in the virtual asset market and provides substantial support for Hong Kong's strategic goal of building an "International Virtual Asset Center." After the license upgrade, Guotai Junan International's clients will be able to trade mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as stablecoins like Tether (USDT), all on the same platform, while also receiving compliant investment advice and participating in innovative products like tokenized securities, truly achieving a "one-stop" allocation of traditional securities and digital assets. At a time when there is no directly comparable company to the U.S. stablecoin leader Circle in the Chinese capital market, some investors have even referred to Guotai Junan International as "China's first stablecoin stock."
Looking back to 2024, Guotai Junan International was the first to launch structured products based on virtual asset spot ETFs in the Hong Kong market and received permission from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to conduct virtual asset trading platform introduction agency business; by 2025, the company was confirmed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to distribute tokenized securities to clients or provide advice on tokenized securities, and it initiated digital bond issuance business. This path aligns with the "A-S-P-I-Re" roadmap for the Hong Kong virtual asset market released by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in February 2025, which connects (Access), safeguards (Safeguards), products (Products), infrastructure (Infrastructure), and relationships (Relationships). Its 12 specific measures include promoting market participation, implementing adaptive compliance and product frameworks, and upgrading infrastructure by combining the reliability of traditional finance with the efficiency of blockchain technology.
It is noteworthy that although the new license covers various types of virtual assets, stablecoins are still seen as the hub of the entire trading ecosystem, primarily because stablecoins serve as the "bridge currency" connecting traditional finance and the virtual asset market, with their value pegged to fiat currency, low volatility, and usability for cross-border payments or on-chain investments. The Hong Kong "Stablecoin Regulation" will take effect on August 1 this year, making it the first jurisdiction in the world to implement full-chain regulation of fiat-backed stablecoins. Citibank predicts that the global stablecoin market will reach between $1.6 trillion and $3.7 trillion by 2030, and Hong Kong is expected to capture a significant share based on its regulatory first-mover advantage. Xiao Feng, Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group, Hong Kong's largest licensed virtual asset exchange, believes that the development of tokenization and stablecoins will fundamentally change the operation of global financial markets.
Market reactions to some extent confirm the strategic value of this license. On June 26, Guotai Junan International's stock opened up 90% again, but then experienced significant fluctuations, closing down 6%. Although stock prices are difficult to predict, it is certain that the daily trading volume of the virtual asset market, which reaches hundreds of billions of dollars, has opened a new battlefield for brokers deeply mired in traditional brokerage business. At the same time, new cross-border financial scenarios are emerging. In April of this year, Guotai Junan International assisted a central enterprise in successfully issuing $150 million in tokenized bonds, becoming one of the first institutional projects to complete bond issuance through Hong Kong's Tokenized Securities Central Clearing Network (TCN), validating the disruptive enhancement of blockchain on cross-border financial efficiency, and this model may be extended to stocks, funds, and other broader asset categories in the future.
In this newly opened feast, brokers are not the only beneficiaries. Dongwu Securities' research report states that the wave of compliance for virtual assets will activate and reshape the entire non-bank financial industry chain, with a collaborative ecological network around digital asset issuance, circulation, management, and application accelerating its formation. For fintech companies, there is a surge in demand for services such as blockchain infrastructure, smart contract auditing, and on-chain compliance monitoring, forming a technical support layer; for payment institutions, their cross-border payment networks will seamlessly integrate into the stablecoin clearing system, significantly improving efficiency and sharing transaction fees (replacing the high costs of traditional SWIFT); for asset management companies, new programmable assets such as tokenized money market funds, bond funds, and even REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) will emerge to meet global investors' demand for "on-chain yield," driving the growth of asset management scale.
However, opportunities always coexist with challenges. The test of technological security is paramount, as virtual asset trading requires high system protection standards; for example, hacker attacks and private key management vulnerabilities can lead to significant losses, necessitating continuous investment in risk control system upgrades by institutions. At the same time, the regulatory environment also has uncertainties. Although Hong Kong is the first to legislate, the "Guidance and Establishment of the U.S. Stablecoin National Innovation Act" is advancing, and the EU's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) framework has been established, which may lead to policy arbitrage due to global regulatory differences.
Nevertheless, the institutionalization of the virtual asset market will continue to deepen. Data from the Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau shows that the scale of virtual asset-related funds surged by 200% year-on-year in 2024, with the proportion of institutional funds exceeding 40%, significantly enhancing market credibility with the entry of traditional financial institutions. According to industry insiders directly involved in the virtual asset license application and system integration, several local Hong Kong brokers (such as Victory Securities, Aide Securities, etc.) have completed the upgrade of License No. 1, and more institutions may enter the market in the future. It is reported that brokers mainly provide "distribution" type trading services rather than operating proprietary exchanges, with their model being to establish comprehensive accounts (Omnibus Accounts) within licensed exchanges, providing clients with trading channels for mainstream compliant currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, without involving high-risk altcoins or scam coins.
Among the many brokers transforming from traditional underwriters to full-cycle service providers for digital assets, Guotai Junan International's license upgrade undoubtedly holds symbolic significance and reflects the gradual maturity of Hong Kong's virtual asset regulation. In the long run, whether Hong Kong can leverage its dual advantages of "compliance + technology" to become an Asian virtual asset hub will still depend on the refinement of risk control. For Chinese securities firms, a large, rapidly growing new market that can leverage their own customer and brand advantages is opening its doors in a compliant manner. Guotai Junan's initial licensing may just be the signal for the beginning of this feast.
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