BUSINESS

In Profile: Billionaire Founder of Chinese Broker Futu Faces His Toughest Test

Published: Jul. 24, 2026 6:06 p.m. GMT+8

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Leaf Li Hua is the founder of Futu Holdings Ltd.

From an early engineer at Tencent Holdings Ltd. to the billionaire founder of Futu Holdings Ltd., Li Hua built one of China’s most prominent online brokerages. Now, the cross-border business model that powered Futu’s rise has exposed the 49-year-old entrepreneur to the most serious regulatory and legal challenge of his career.

A securities fraud class action lawsuit is pending against Nasdaq-listed Futu, Li and Chief Financial Officer Chen Yu in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the company and its executives of failing to adequately disclose the legal risks of conducting cross-border securities business in mainland China.

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What Happened When

2004：: Tencent listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, after which Li Hua accumulated significant wealth and began trading Hong Kong stocks frequently.

2007：: During the bull market, Li Hua's personal trading volume reached several billion Hong Kong dollars.

2008：: Li Hua left Tencent Holdings Ltd.

2012：: By 2012, Hong Kong's brokerage industry was already crowded, and Li Hua was still fundraising, having invested about HK$40 million of his own money.

2013：: Wu Xiaoguang, a former Tencent executive, tried Futu's product and found it easy to use.

March 2014：: Tencent, MPCi and HSG invested in Futu's Series A funding round.

2015：: Before and after the Qingming Festival holiday, trading volumes on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong jumped sharply, leading to Futu's first period of rapid growth.

March 8, 2019：: Futu listed on the Nasdaq, with the stock rising 27.7% in its first trading session, giving the company a market value of about $1.7 billion.

March 2019：: Twelve days after Futu's listing, Tiger Brokers' parent, Up Fintech, also listed on Nasdaq.

October 2021：: Sun Tianqi, then head of the financial-stability bureau at the People's Bank of China, said cross-border online brokerages were, in substance, 'driving without a license' on the Chinese mainland.

December 2022：: The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) formally began rectifying what it described as illegal cross-border operations by Futu and Tiger Brokers, ordering the companies to stop soliciting mainland investors.

Fourth quarter of 2025：: Futu's revenue rose 45.3% from a year earlier to about HK$6.44 billion, while profit increased 80.2% to roughly HK$3.37 billion.

First quarter of 2026：: Futu reported revenue of HK$5.86 billion, up 24.7% from a year earlier; net profit fell 61.2% to HK$831 million after accounting for the Chinese penalties.

May 22, 2026：: The CSRC announced that related entities of Futu, Up Fintech Holding Ltd. and Long Bridge HK Ltd. provided securities marketing and order-processing services on the mainland without required licenses, constituting illegal securities business activity. The regulator also cited illegal futures brokerage and mutual fund distribution.

June 12, 2026：: Futu stopped allowing affected mainland clients to buy securities, open new positions or transfer additional funds from the Chinese mainland.

As of 2026：: A securities fraud class action lawsuit is pending against Nasdaq-listed Futu, Li Hua and CFO Chen Yu in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

AI generated, for reference only