Share this article
Hong Kong Set to Allow Crypto Derivatives Trading
Crypto derivatives are a much larger market than spot trading.
Jun 5, 2025, 5:20 a.m.
What to know:
- Hong Kong's securities regulator plans to allow professional investors to trade crypto derivatives, expanding the territory's virtual asset market.
- The crypto derivatives market is significantly larger than spot trading, with $21 trillion in volume in the first quarter compared to $4.6 trillion in spot volume.
- Hong Kong's legislative council recently passed a bill to license stablecoins, further advancing its virtual asset regulations.
The Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong’s securities regulator, is planning to allow professional investors to trade crypto derivatives, marking a significant expansion of the territory’s virtual asset market offerings, according to a report from China Daily.
Crypto derivatives are a considerably larger market than spot trading. Data from TokenInsight shows that the crypto derivatives market pushed through $21 trillion in volume for the first quarter of the year, compared to $4.6 trillion in spot volume.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Stakeholders in the industry have long called for Hong Kong to license crypto derivatives trading.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post earlier this year, Jean-David Péquignot, chief commercial officer of Deribit, one of the largest derivatives exchanges, said crypto derivatives rules were a missing piece of legislation for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's legislative council, its parliamentary body, recently passed a bill that would allow for the licensing of stablecoins in the city.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
CFTC Launches Digital Assets Pilot Allowing Bitcoin, Ether and USDC as Collateral
Acting Chair Caroline Pham has unveiled a first-of-its-kind U.S. program to permit tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, citing "clear guardrails" for firms.
What to know:
- The CFTC has launched a pilot program allowing BTC, ETH and USDC to be used as collateral in U.S. derivatives markets.
- The program is aimed at approved futures commission merchants and includes strict custody, reporting and oversight requirements.
- The agency also issued updated guidance for tokenized assets and withdrew outdated restrictions following the GENIUS Act.
Top Stories
