Hong Kong Derlin Securities has been approved to upgrade to a Type 4 license and plans to start virtual asset trading services in February

The Hong Kong-listed company Derlin Holdings announced that its subsidiary Derlin Securities (Hong Kong) Limited received conditional approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission on January 15 to provide virtual asset consulting services, allowing it to upgrade its existing Type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activity license.

According to the approval conditions, Derlin Securities may only provide this consulting service to professional investors among its existing clients in the Type 4 business. In addition, Derlin Securities has previously been granted approval to upgrade its Type 1 (dealing in securities) regulated activity license. Derlin Holdings stated that it expects to officially launch virtual asset trading services in February this year after completing the system connection and testing with the licensed platform of the Securities and Futures Commission. This license upgrade will support the group's strategy in the tokenization of virtual assets and real-world assets (RWA).