Futu has finally obtained a virtual asset financing license. Traditional securities collateral limits can be used to trade cryptocurrencies, but crypto-denominated margin trading still deducts 100%, which is a major drawback for capital efficiency.

CoinWorld News, Futu Securities announced that it has received approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for the upgrade of License No. 1 (Securities Trading) services, launching virtual asset trading financing services for qualified clients in Hong Kong.
The collateral for this service must be traditional securities, and previously, credit limits obtained through traditional securities financing could not be used for cryptocurrency trading; this has now been relaxed to allow use for cryptocurrency trading.
As for using virtual assets directly as collateral for margin trading, although the SFC issued a circular in February relaxing the use of virtual assets as collateral, the circular mentioned that before the revision of capital regulations, virtual asset collateral would be subject to a 100% deduction under the Securities and Futures (Financial Resources) Rules, which is expected to pose certain challenges to the industry's capital efficiency in actual operations.