Mox Bank, a virtual bank based in Hong Kong, has started offering crypto ETF trading, positioning itself as a leader in the region's growing crypto market.

Crypto ETF Service Debuts at Mox

Customers of a Hong Kong-based virtual bank can now trade cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, and the company is considering expanding into spot trading markets.

The first virtual bank to allow direct trading of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs on its platform, Mox, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, announced the debut of its crypto ETF service on August 7.

As part of its strategy to diversify its revenue streams, the bank is looking into forming a partnership with a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange that will enable customers to buy and sell cryptocurrency directly.

Mox Markets Cost-Effective Trading

While US-listed derivatives ETFs charge 0.01% per share with a minimum of $5, Hong Kong-listed spot and derivatives ETFs charge 0.12% of transaction volume with a minimum of $3.85 (30 Hong Kong dollars), and Mox is marketing itself as a cost-effective alternative for crypto ETF trading.

Hong Kong is aiming to become a crypto hub for the Far East, and on April 30, spot crypto ETFs were legalized and started trading there.

In addition, as of September 2020, 28% of digital banks' customers had already invested in cryptocurrency, and 18% of those users were actively trading crypto.

Mox CEO on Global Standards

According to Mox CEO Barbaros Uygun, the digital bank aims to establish itself as a worldwide standard by "staying ahead of the competition by being innovative and responsive to changing markets," with headquarters in Hong Kong. Uygun continued by saying:

"Adding Crypto ETFs to the Mox Invest platform empowers our customers to gain access to emerging asset classes with confidence."

According to the South China Morning Post, the bank's chief product officer, Jayant Bhatia, stated that the introduction of the crypto ETF "is just the start of what Mox intends to offer in the crypto investing space," but he did not provide any details regarding the launch date of the crypto trading services.

No quick answer was received by Cointelegraph after contacting Mox for additional details.

Ever since their launches three months ago, Bosera HashKey, ChinaAMC, and Harvest Global—the three Hong Kong spot ETF issuers—have faced significant challenges in attracting investors.

As of this writing, the combined assets under control of the three ETFs amount to a meager $236.3 million, and August has seen no movements for any of them, according to data from CoinGlass.