Hong Kong’s effort to build a regulated digital-asset market is increasingly moving beyond crypto exchanges and into mainstream wealth management. Forthright Securities is the latest brokerage to push that convergence, unveiling an upgraded multi-asset platform that lets eligible clients hold virtual assets alongside traditional securities through a single account.

The boundary between conventional brokerage accounts and digital-asset platforms is becoming less distinct in Hong Kong.

Forthright Securities, a subsidiary of JF SmartInvest Holdings, used Bitcoin Asia 2026 to showcase a multi-asset allocation platform that combines traditional securities and virtual assets within a single account. The company says the service allows clients to manage investments without opening a separate crypto account or moving between platforms.

The move comes as Hong Kong develops a regulated framework for virtual-asset businesses and seeks to strengthen its position as an international wealth-management hub.

For Forthright, the strategy is built around a relatively simple proposition: virtual assets should become part of broader portfolio construction rather than remain isolated trading products.

That shift is significant for the financial-services industry. Traditional wealth managers and brokerages have generally approached crypto cautiously because of volatility, custody requirements, regulatory uncertainty and questions over how digital assets fit into established investment frameworks.

A unified brokerage account does not eliminate those challenges. But it can reduce one of the practical barriers to adoption: fragmentation between traditional and digital investment infrastructure.

From crypto trading to asset allocation

At Bitcoin Asia 2026, Richard Zhengwei He, CEO of Forthright Financial and Forthright Securities, argued that licensed brokerages can play a different role in digital assets by combining execution with research and investment advice.

His keynote covered institutional Bitcoin adoption, crypto ETFs, real-world asset tokenization and Hong Kong’s potential role in digital-asset wealth management.

The broader argument is that digital assets are entering a more mature phase of the financial system.

Instead of treating Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies purely as speculative instruments, financial institutions are increasingly examining where they could fit within diversified portfolios.

Forthright’s platform reflects that approach. The company says retail investors can trade BTC, ETH and SOL, while professional investors can access additional assets including USDT, LINK, UNI and LTC. Virtual assets can be held alongside Hong Kong and U.S. equities through the same account.

The company has also introduced an AI Investment Terminal, alongside dedicated investment advisory and research services.

That combination is notable because the competitive landscape is changing.

Crypto-native exchanges have traditionally competed on liquidity, asset selection and trading functionality. Conventional brokerages, meanwhile, have competed on regulation, research, advisory services and access to traditional securities.

The emerging model attempts to combine those propositions.

Why Hong Kong matters

Hong Kong has been building a regulatory framework intended to establish clearer rules for virtual-asset businesses while maintaining investor-protection requirements.

That framework gives licensed financial institutions a route into digital assets that is structurally different from the lightly regulated or offshore crypto markets that dominated the industry’s earlier years.

Forthright says its securities and asset-management businesses completed relevant licensing-condition upgrades in May 2026, covering Type 1, Type 4 and Type 9 regulated activities alongside virtual-asset business qualifications.

Those licenses correspond broadly to dealing in securities, advising on securities and asset management. Their relevance to digital assets is that regulated financial institutions can potentially integrate virtual-asset services into broader financial offerings, subject to applicable requirements and client eligibility.

The regulatory architecture is important because institutional adoption depends on more than demand.

Banks, brokerages, family offices and asset managers need clarity around custody, suitability, trading permissions, risk controls, disclosure and compliance before they can incorporate digital assets into mainstream investment processes.

That is one reason Hong Kong has become an important testing ground for the convergence between traditional finance and crypto infrastructure.

The wealth-management opportunity

Forthright is particularly focused on high-net-worth investors and family offices.

He argued at the conference that traditional portfolios currently allocate a relatively small proportion to crypto and suggested that a move toward a 5% digital-asset allocation among family offices and private-wealth institutions could significantly expand the market.

That is a scenario rather than a market forecast, but it illustrates the scale of the opportunity financial institutions are targeting.

The more important question for wealth managers is how clients gain exposure.

Crypto ETFs provide one route, particularly for investors who want regulated exposure without directly holding digital assets. Direct ownership, however, can provide different characteristics around asset custody, tracking and fees.

A brokerage that offers both traditional securities and virtual assets through a single regulated relationship is effectively competing with both conventional wealth platforms and crypto exchanges.

For investors, that can simplify portfolio management. For financial institutions, it introduces a much more complicated technology and compliance requirement.

AI enters the multi-asset brokerage

Forthright’s AI Investment Terminal adds another layer to the company’s strategy.

AI is increasingly being incorporated into wealth-management platforms for market research, portfolio analysis, personalization and investor support. The technology can process large volumes of market information and help investors navigate increasingly complex asset classes.

But AI in financial services requires careful boundaries.

An AI system that summarizes market information is fundamentally different from one that recommends or executes trades. As digital assets introduce additional volatility and regulatory complexity, brokerages need to ensure that AI-supported investment tools operate within appropriate suitability, supervision and risk-management frameworks.

Forthright says its model combines AI-driven investing with human advisory and research teams. That hybrid approach reflects where much of financial-services AI is heading: using automation to improve speed and information access while retaining human oversight for higher-stakes decisions.

A broader convergence

Forthright’s announcement is part of a much larger convergence between traditional financial infrastructure and blockchain-based markets.

BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan and other major financial institutions have explored tokenized funds, blockchain settlement and digital-asset infrastructure, while established exchanges and brokerages continue to expand their digital-asset capabilities.

The competitive question is therefore shifting.

It is no longer simply whether a financial institution will offer crypto. It is whether digital assets can become another component of a broader financial-services platform.

Forthright’s single-account strategy is an attempt to answer that question at the brokerage level.

For enterprise financial institutions, the model also highlights the infrastructure challenge ahead. Supporting multiple asset classes requires integrated custody, trading, risk, compliance, research and customer-experience systems.

Hong Kong’s regulatory development provides the framework. The next stage will depend on whether financial institutions can turn that framework into products that investors can actually use without adding complexity.

Forthright’s expansion into virtual assets suggests the convergence is moving from regulatory theory into the day-to-day architecture of wealth management.

Market Landscape

Hong Kong is emerging as one of the more closely watched jurisdictions for regulated digital assets.

The market is developing around licensed virtual-asset platforms, institutional products, tokenization initiatives and financial institutions integrating digital assets into existing services.

The direction differs from the early crypto market, where exchanges largely operated as standalone destinations. Increasingly, digital assets are being incorporated into broader financial ecosystems that include banks, brokerages, asset managers and payment providers.

The competitive field includes crypto-native platforms as well as traditional financial institutions exploring custody, trading and tokenization. Global firms such as BlackRock, JPMorgan and Franklin Templeton have helped accelerate institutional interest in blockchain-based financial products.

For Hong Kong brokerages, the opportunity lies in combining local regulatory infrastructure with the city’s existing wealth-management ecosystem.

The challenge is building products that satisfy both sides of the market: investors looking for convenient digital-asset access and regulators requiring robust controls around suitability, custody, disclosure and operational resilience.

AI adds another competitive dimension. As wealth platforms become more data-driven, firms will increasingly compete on their ability to combine investment research, personalization and automation with appropriate human oversight.

Forthright’s approach sits directly at that intersection.

Top Insights

• Forthright Securities is integrating virtual assets with traditional securities through one brokerage account, reflecting the convergence of crypto and mainstream wealth management.
• Hong Kong’s regulatory framework is creating new opportunities for licensed brokerages to provide digital-asset services alongside established securities and investment businesses.
• Forthright combines virtual-asset trading with research, personalized advisory and an AI Investment Terminal aimed at supporting broader multi-asset allocation decisions.
• The single-account model could challenge standalone crypto exchanges by giving investors digital-asset access within an established brokerage relationship and financial infrastructure.
• AI adoption introduces new opportunities for wealth platforms but also increases requirements around suitability, supervision, risk controls and responsible investment decision support.

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