First Global Credit, the London-based bitcoin firm that enables cryptocurrency to be used as collateral margin to trade stocks, ETFs and commodity futures, has added over 50 fast moving stocks from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) to those already available on the bitcoin backed trading portal. These stocks cover not only Hong Kong based companies but over 30 mainland Chinese companies that are traded on the HKEX.

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“We see cryptocurrency as a way to provide access to profit opportunities that had previously been the domain of professional or relatively wealthy investors to a much wider audience,” stated First Global Founding Director Marcie Terman. “Through the medium of bitcoin, First Global makes it possible for investors from around the globe including the developing world to have access to profitable trading opportunities that simply would not have been possible before bitcoin.”

“We are now serving growing numbers of traders in Africa and Latin America, as well as parts of Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia and even Nepal,” added Terman. “This is following the pattern we expected to see where cryptocurrency is adopted more widely in certain jurisdictions where ‘conventional’ market economies exclude all but the most wealthy participants. It is not only through efficiencies in cross-borders payment transactions that cryptocurrency is benefiting the average person,” continued Terman.

Currency Switch

The platform now also offers a ‘Currency Switch’ service which is meant to allow bitcoin to fiat trading with some advantages over bitcoin exchanges. Gavin Smith, First Global Credit CEO, explains: “Currency Switch works on the premise that it does not matter if you are holding your trading collateral in fiat currency or bitcoin.

This allows clients to take advantage of bitcoin price moves while simultaneously trading other markets. So, if a trader identifies an impending decrease in the price of bitcoin they can quickly move their capital into dollars, sterling Swiss francs or euros without needing to cash out of their stock and futures trades. First Global clients have a distinct edge over other bitcoin holders because they can extract profit from their capital in two ways at the same time.”