A look at ZA Bank: the firm’s ties to Chinese online insurer Zhongan Insurance, potential parallels with Silvergate Bank, and what Hong Kong’s crypto openness says about Beijing’s stance on crypto.
ZA Bank executives and employees attending the "ZA Carnival: Millionaire Edition" at Olympian City 2 in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. August 2022. Credit: ZA Bank via LinkedIn
The U.S. crypto industry is in turmoil following the high-profile collapse of exchange FTX as well as two banks that serve the sector. Now start-ups may be finding a refuge in an unexpected place: Hong Kong.
The process of transferring money to ZA Bank. Credit: ZA
One beneficiary of the city’s apparent embrace of crypto — which has emerged despite Beijing’s long-held wariness of the industry — is online firm ZA Bank. Last week it received official permission to operate as a settlement bank for cryptocurrency start-ups in Hong Kong — the only bank there primarily focused on helping crypto firms exchange digital tokens for mainstream ‘fiat’ currencies.
ZA Bank’s acceptance could be a sign that the Chinese authorities are looking to use Hong Kong as a place to experiment with the technology without exposing the Chinese public to the risks of trading the speculative assets, says Yaya Fanusie, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
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