China’s securities regulator is shutting down mainland operations of major online brokers Tiger Brokers, Futu Holdings, and Longbridge over a two-year wind-down. These are online brokerage platforms based in Hong Kong and overseas that let users trade US, Hong Kong, and other global stocks from their phones.

Mainland Chinese investors flocked to them because they offered cheap, easy access to foreign markets like US equities. Now, some of that frozen capital could flow into crypto channels like USDT and OTC desks.

What the CSRC Crackdown Targets

The cases name Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, and Longbridge Securities (Hong Kong) Limited.

Each entity allegedly handled…