Hong Kong's ZA Bank lets users trade crypto against fiat currencies on its banking app

Hong Kong’s ZA Bank now offers direct cryptocurrency trading services to its retail users, the digital bank announced today. ZA said in the press release that it is the first bank in Asia to offer retail crypto trading. 

"Through the ZA Bank app, users can now seamlessly trade top cryptocurrencies in HKD and USD — all within a single platform, with no need to switch between apps or platforms," the bank wrote in the press release. 

ZA Bank teamed up with Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HashKey to launch the retail crypto trading service, utilizing HashKey Pro — the institutional-grade service to help financial entities integrate crypto trading functionalities. HashKey Pro offers API trading, block trade services, and enterprise-level account structure and permission management, HashKey exchange said in its press release.

"Looking ahead, HashKey Exchange will continue to work closely with ZA Bank to drive the development of the Web3 ecosystem, while delivering more diversified financial services to our users," HashKey CEO Livio Weng said.

HashKey is currently one of three licensed cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong, along with OSL and HKVAX.

The launch comes amidst the extended crypto market rally, ignited by crypto proponent Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president. In the past few weeks, bitcoin rewrote its all-time high record multiple times, recently nearing the $100,000 mark before moving back down to currently trade at around $98,000 .