OSL review: SFC-licensed Hong Kong exchange, fees and retail limits

Who runs OSL

OSL’s Hong Kong site says it is “the first licensed exchange in Hong Kong”. The exchange, OSL Exchange, is operated by OSL Digital Securities Limited, a company incorporated in Hong Kong. OSL’s group site adds that other OSL Group companies work under separate licences and “are not covered by the same Hong Kong licence”. OSL Group is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange (0863.HK). All facts in this review were checked on 28 October 2026 on OSL’s Hong Kong site and support centre, in its client terms and staking terms, and on the Securities and Futures Commission’s list of licensed platforms.

Licences

• OSL Digital Securities Limited has SFC Central Entity number BPJ213. Its client terms say it is licensed by the SFC for Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 7 (automated trading services) and licensed as a virtual asset service provider under Hong Kong’s anti-money-laundering law. The SFC’s list of licensed virtual asset trading platforms shows the company with the platform “OSL Exchange” and a licence dated 15 December 2020.
• The home page also lists licences for the group in Japan, Indonesia, Bermuda and Australia, but does not name the companies that hold them, so we do not list them.

The client terms define “restricted jurisdictions” without listing them, and no page we read says whether residents of mainland China can open an account.

Fees

OSL’s support centre gives these trading fees for retail and professional clients:

• Pro Trade (order book): makers pay nothing, takers pay 0.05%. The VIP page repeats “Maker 0% / Taker 0.05%”.
• Flash Trade (instant conversions): no trading fee.

OSL charges no fee on fiat deposits and withdrawals; your bank and any intermediary bank may. Crypto deposits are free. OSL says fees apply to crypto withdrawals, but the fee table is on a page whose robots.txt blocks automated readers, so we could not check the amounts.

What retail clients can trade

This matters if you want stablecoins. OSL’s support centre lists only BTC, ETH, SOL, LINK and XRP as assets retail investors can deposit. Its professional investor page compares the two account types: retail clients get 4 tradable tokens and 5 quote currencies, while professional investors get more than 25 tokens and 9 quote currencies, including USDT, USDC and CNH. To qualify as a professional investor you must show at least HKD 8 million in assets. On the day we checked, no stablecoin such as USDT was among the assets a retail client could deposit.

Deposits and withdrawals

You can deposit HKD, USD, GBP and EUR (CNH for professional investors only). HKD can be sent by eDDA, FPS or bank transfer; other currencies only by bank transfer from an account in your own name. The minimum fiat deposit is 0.01. Withdrawals go back to your bank account and usually arrive within 1 to 2 business days, or 2 to 3 for overseas banks.

Staking

OSL’s staking terms let it stake some coins for you through third-party validators. Staked coins are locked for a period set by each blockchain, which OSL says “may take significant time”, and the terms mention the risk of “slashing”, when a validator breaks the network’s rules. Staked coins can also fall in value like any other crypto.

Before you open an account

• Check whether you qualify as a retail or professional investor, because it decides which coins you can use.
• Ask for the crypto withdrawal fee before you move coins out.
• Keep in mind that we found no proof-of-reserves page on OSL’s site.

We have not tested OSL with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.