Futu Holdings Limited, the Hong Kong-based online brokerage known for its Moomoo and Futubull platforms, reported that its net profit more than doubled in 2025, with full-year revenue climbing past $2.9 billion as clients poured money into U.S. technology stocks and the firm deepened its footprint across Asia.Net income for the year ended December 31 came in at HK$11.3 billion (US$1.45 billion), up 108% from 2024, the company said today (Thursday). Total revenue rose 68.1% year-over-year to HK$22.8 billion (US$2.94 billion), while gross profit margin expanded to 87.1% from 82% a year earlier, a sign that costs are growing far more slowly than the top line.Futu’s Record Trading Volumes on AI and IPO DemandThe headline numbers were driven by an 89.4% jump in total trading volume for the full year, which reached HK$14.68 trillion, the company said. In the fourth quarter alone, trading volume hit HK$3.98 trillion, a quarterly record, up 37.8% from the same period in 2024. U.S. stock trades dominated that figure, accounting for HK$3.04 trillion of Q4 volume, with Futu's CEO attributing the strength to client interest in artificial intelligence-related companies."U.S. stock trading volume grew 17.1% sequentially to HK$3.04 trillion, primarily driven by heightened client interests in companies across the AI value chain," said Leaf Hua Li, Futu's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.[#highlighted-links#] The surge in AI-linked trading is a theme that has played out across the brokerage industry over the past year, as retail investors chased gains in semiconductor and cloud infrastructure names.Futu's results arrived the same day that TP ICAP reported record full-year revenue of $3.15 billion, pointing to a broadly strong year for financial intermediaries on both the retail and wholesale sides of the market.Hong Kong stock turnover, by contrast, fell 31% quarter-over-quarter to HK$821.1 billion in Q4, as enthusiasm cooled for Chinese technology companies during the second half. Li said the decline was "partially offset by increased trading activity in gold and other precious metals-related equities." Crypto volumes held steady despite what the CEO described as "weak sentiment in crypto in the fourth quarter," with penetration rates continuing to rise in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States.Futu's U.S. crypto ambitions took a concrete step forward last year when its Moomoo subsidiary launched a cryptocurrency trading service in the United States, backed by Coinbase, integrating charting and copy trading features into the platform.Client Growth Holds, Though Q4 Pace SoftensFutu ended 2025 with 3.37 million funded accounts, a 39.6% increase from a year earlier and up from 3.1 million at the end of the third quarter. For the full year, the firm says it added more than 954,000 net new funded accounts. Total users across the platform reached 29.2 million, up 16% year-over-year.The fourth-quarter pace was slower. The company added approximately 234,000 net new funded accounts in Q4, down 8% from the third quarter, though up 9% from Q4 2024. Li pointed to the Hong Kong market downturn as the main drag, while noting that Japan and Malaysia picked up the slack. "Growth in Hong Kong decelerated quarter-over-quarter due to a sharp Hong Kong stock market downturn, yet growth in Japan and Malaysia picked up meaningfully sequentially," he said.Total client assets ended the year at HK$1.23 trillion, up 65.9% year-over-year but essentially flat from the prior quarter, as falling valuations in Hong Kong-listed stocks offset fresh inflows. The U.S. market recorded the fastest sequential gain in average client assets, the company said.Costs Controlled as Earnings Per Share ClimbDespite the sharp revenue growth, Futu kept total costs nearly flat - down 6.1% year-over-year in Q4 to HK$728.8 million - largely because interest expenses on its securities borrowing and lending book fell about 15%. Operating expenses for the quarter rose a more modest 8.6%, leading to an operating margin of 64.4%, up from 50% in Q4 2024.For the full year, operating income more than doubled, rising 112.6% to HK$14.1 billion. Diluted earnings per ADS came in at US$10.31 for 2025, compared with US$9.72 implied by the HK$38.88 figure reported for 2024.This Q4 performance builds on a strong run that has gathered pace since mid-2024. Quarterly profit jumped 144% in Q3 2025, when net income hit $414 million on the back of surging IPO activity and cryptocurrency trading gains - itself a sharp acceleration from the trajectory laid out in Futu's full-year 2024 results, when the company added 701,000 paying clients and targeted 800,000 new ones in 2025. It hit that mark and is now setting the same goal for 2026.Eyes on 800,000 New Accounts in 2026Looking ahead, Li said the company sees room to grow across all of its markets and is guiding to 800,000 net new funded accounts this year. "We continue to see ample bottom-up growth opportunities across our markets and are guiding to 800 thousand net new funded accounts in 2026," he said. Management will hold an earnings conference call on Thursday at 7:30 AM Eastern Time. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

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