The regulatory move means that the bank's Hong Kong business is able to offer services including crypto spot trading. It is making the move at a time when the Asian jurisdiction has been pushing its credentials in the cryptos and digital assets sector.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has granted a Type 1 “licence uplift” to AMINA (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered AMINA Bank, a cryptocurrency specialist bank.

The change allows AMINA HK to offer 4/7 crypto spot trading, asset safeguarding, and crypto deposits and withdrawals directly to and from whitelisted addresses through a framework designed to meet SFC regulatory standards, it said in a statement today. These capabilities streamline client journeys while maintaining the institutional-grade standards that professional investors, family offices and institutional clients require.

AMINA said it is the first international banking group to offer these services to professional investors in the Asian city.

Hong Kong professional investors – including institutions, corporates and high net worth individuals – can now access institutional-grade crypto services within Hong Kong’s regulatory framework.

AMINA said the latest development “addresses a critical gap in Hong Kong’s institutional crypto market.”

While Hong Kong has established regulatory frameworks for digital assets, see more detail here, professional investors and family offices have faced limited access to international, institutional-grade crypto services with local onboarding capabilities, the bank said.

“Hong Kong has established itself as the region’s most sophisticated market for regulated institutional crypto adoption, and this licence uplift positions AMINA to serve the accelerating demand from professional investors seeking trusted access to crypto,” said Michael Benz, head of AMINA Hong Kong and APAC. (Benz, formerly at Standard Chartered, Merrill Lynch and UBS, was appointed in August 2025.)

“What distinguishes AMINA is our ability to combine Swiss banking rigour with Hong Kong digital asset expertise to deliver crypto solutions through a framework that institutional clients can trust. This milestone enables us to expand our crypto product shelf, including private fund management, structured products, derivatives and tokenized real-world assets – all delivered through the regulated framework that our professional investor community demands,” Benz said.

The development comes at a time of continued ferment in the world’s cryptocurrency and digital assets space (the latter term applying to a range of entities such as tokens). Jurisdictions around the world – including Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, the US and the UK – are competing in different ways to attract business. To some extent, cryptocurrencies have become part of the financial mainstream.

Hong Kong is seeking to reinforce its credentials as a stand-out centre for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has created a stablecoin licensing framework, which came into force on 1 August. The government also operates a Digital Asset Policy 2.0 initiative.

Trading capabilities
AMINA HK’s new offerings are now live and available to professional investors:

-- 24/7 professional trading across major digital asset pairs with institutional-grade execution infrastructure;

-- Initial offering of 13 vetted cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins (USDC, USDT) and DeFi tokens;

-- Access to institutional-grade liquidity pools through SFC-licensed infrastructure; and

-- Multi-channel access via mobile applications (iOS/Android), web portals and personalised relationship management.

Custody

-- SFC-compliant custody access meeting institutional security standards;

-- Support for crypto deposits and withdrawals to whitelisted addresses, providing professional investors with flexibility to move cryptocurrencies between AMINA and external non-custodial wallets;

-- Multi-layered security protocols, including SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified infrastructure; and

-- 24/7 operational capabilities enabling professional investors to manage cryptocurrency positions across global time zones.

AMINA – formerly called SEBA Bank – was founded in April 2018 and is based in Zug, Switzerland. In 2024, AMINA (renamed from SEBA Bank in 2023) recorded 69 per cent revenue growth, reaching $40.4 million, which it said made it Switzerland’s fastest-growing crypto bank. Its Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong entities have each received a range of regulatory licences.