Webull

Last updated

Webull
Company type Privately held company
Industry Financial services
FoundedMay 24, 2017;7 years ago (2017-05-24) [1] [2]
FoundersWang Anquan [3]
Headquarters
St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. [4]
Key people
Anthony Denier (President) [5]
Products Electronic trading platform
Services Stockbroker
OwnerWang Anquan [6]
General Atlantic [4]
Coatue Management
[4] Lightspeed Venture Partners [4]
J. Rothschild Capital Management [4]
Gopher Asset Management
Parent Hunan Fumi Information Technology
Website www.webull.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Webull Corporation is a electronic trading platform owned by Hunan Fumi Information Technology, a Chinese holding company. [7] The platform offers low-cost trading of stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), options, margins, fixed income, and futures, with no platform fees. [8] Founded in 2017, Webull is accessible via its mobile app and through desktop.

Contents

Webull's holding company has received backing from Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital, and other private equity investors in China. [9] The holding company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. [10] Webull is expected to become a public company in 2024 via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). [11]

Webull has received criticism from U.S. lawmakers and states attorneys general over its ties to Chinese companies. In 2024, a coalition of state attorneys general launched a probe into Webull over user privacy issues and concerns about the company's links to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interests. [12] [13]

History

Foundation and early history (2017-2021)

On May 24, 2017, Webull Financial LLC was established as a Delaware limited liability company [14] by Wang Anquan, a former employee of Alibaba Group. [6] [15] In 2019, Webull's U.S. CEO Anthony Denier stated that Webull was “both a U.S. and Chinese company” in an interview. [12]

In May 2020, the company received SEC approval to launch a robo-advisor on its platform. [16] By August 2020, the platform had over 11 million registered users, and in October 2020, it had 750,000 daily active users. [17] [18] In November 2020, Webull began supporting cryptocurrency transactions. [19]

On January 28, 2021, Webull halted buy orders for stocks affected by the GameStop short squeeze. [20] On that day, Webull recorded its highest-ever number of active daily users at 952,000. [21] That week, approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the Webull mobile app. [22]

Sports deals and IPO negotiations (2021-present)

In September 2021, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty entered into a global multi-year agreement with Webull and the company became the official jersey patch partner for the Nets. [23] Terms of the agreement for the jersey patch weren't announced, but people familiar with the agreement told CNBC that it is a multi-year pact that pays the Nets roughly $30 million per year. [24]

In June 2021, Webull began talks of an initial public offering to raise up to $400 million. [25] [26] As of August 2024, Webull is set to go public on Nasdaq via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) agreement worth US$7 billion. [11]

Controversies

Webull has received controversy owing to its ties to Chinese companies, with Anthony Denier, Webull's U.S. CEO, describing Webull as "both a U.S. and Chinese company" in 2019. [12]

2023 FINRA fine

In 2023, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Webull $3 million over the company's response to customer's complaints as well as its failure to conduct due diligence when allowing users to trade options. [27]

Lawmaker scrutiny

The Wall Street Journal reported that a number of U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, have expressed concerns about Webull in congressional hearings and letters to regulators. [12] In 2022, Tuberville led a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators in introducing legislation to prevent Webull and other Chinese-owned companies from owning crypto exchange platforms. [28] In December 2024, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party raised concerns over Webull's ownership structure and operation ties to China. [13]

2024 U.S. state attorneys general probe

In 2024, attorneys general from 14 U.S. states launched a probe into Webull centered on data privacy concerns and its potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party. [29] In June 2024, the state of Tennessee banned Webull on all government-issued devices. [12]

Userbase

The company has stated it has approximately 20 million users worldwide as of 2024. [29] Anthony Denier, the company's CEO, claimed that Webull's userbase attracted more advanced and experienced investors than competing platforms, such as Robinhood. [30]

Related Research Articles

<i>Forbes</i> American business magazine

Forbes is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917 and owned by Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Federle. It is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek.

eToro is a social trading and multi-asset investment company focused on CFD offerings. eToro was founded in 2007 in Tel Aviv by Yoni Assia, Ronen Assia, and David Ring. The company's headquarters are located in Central Israel. At the start of 2024, eToro had 35.5 million registered users, and over 3 million funded accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Gensler</span> American banker (born 1957)

Gary S. Gensler is an American government official and former investment banker serving as the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler previously worked for Goldman Sachs and has led the Biden–Harris transition's Federal Reserve, Banking, and Securities Regulators agency review team. Prior to his appointment, he was professor of Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SoundHound</span> American music and speech recognition company

SoundHound AI, Inc. is a voice artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2005. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. SoundHound provides a voice AI platform that enables businesses to offer customized conversational experiences to consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamath Palihapitiya</span> Sri Lankan-born businessman (born 1976)

Chamath Palihapitiya is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, and the founder and CEO of Social Capital. Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook, working at the company from 2007 to 2011. Following his departure from Facebook, Palihapitiya started The Social+Capital Partnership, through which he invested in several companies, including Yammer and Slack. He is also the co-host of technology podcast All-In, along with David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">StockTwits</span> Social media site for investors

Stocktwits is a social media platform designed for sharing ideas between investors, traders, and entrepreneurs. Founded in 2008 by Howard Lindzon and Soren McBeth, it introduced the use of the cashtag, a way to group discussions around a stock symbol preceded by a dollar sign. Stocktwits eventually became a standalone network where users share market sentiment, ideas, and strategies in real-time.

Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company that now manages stablecoin USDC, a cryptocurrency the value of which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. USDC, the second largest stablecoin worldwide, is designed to hold at or near a stable price of $1. The majority of its stablecoin collateral is held in short-term U.S. government securities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robinhood Markets</span> US-based financial services company

Robinhood Markets, Inc. is an American financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The company provides an electronic trading platform accessible via mobile app that facilitates commission-free trades of stocks, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency, as well as cryptocurrency wallets, credit cards and other banking services. The company's revenue comes from transaction-based revenues, net interest income, and subscription fees. The company has 24.3 million funded customers, 11.0 million monthly active users, and $152 billion in assets under custody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ByteDance</span> Chinese internet technology company

ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TikTok</span> Video-focused social media platform

TikTok, whose mainland Chinese and Hong Kong counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app or the web.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlad Tenev</span> Bulgaria-born American entrepreneur

Vladimir Tenev is a Bulgarian-American entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinduoduo</span> Chinese e-commerce company

Pinduoduo Inc. is a Chinese online retailer with a focus on the traditional agriculture industry. The business is the largest product of PDD Holdings, which also owns the online marketplace Temu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuaishou</span> Chinese video application company

Kuaishou Technology is a Chinese publicly traded partly state-owned holding company based in Haidian District, Beijing, that was founded in 2011 by Hua Su (宿华) and Cheng Yixiao (程一笑). The company is known for developing a mobile app for sharing users' short videos, a social network, and video special effects editor.

r/wallstreetbets Subreddit dedicated to stock market and options trading

r/wallstreetbets, also known as WallStreetBets or WSB, is a subreddit where participants discuss stock and option trading. It has become notable for its colorful jargon, aggressive trading strategies, stories of extreme gains and losses acquired in the stock market, and for playing a major role in the GameStop short squeeze that caused significant losses for a number of US hedge funds and short sellers for a duration of time in early 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BUX (brokerage)</span> Amsterdam-based financial services company

BUX is a European mobile brokerage company, based in Amsterdam and London. Retail investors buy shares, ETFs and cryptocurrency through the BUX app. BUX allows users CFD trading through its Stryk app and crypto trading using the BUX Crypto platform.

In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 percent of GameStop's public float had been sold short, and the rush to buy shares to cover those positions as the price rose caused it to rise even further. The short squeeze was initially and primarily triggered by users of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets, an Internet forum on the social news website Reddit, although a number of hedge funds also participated. At its height, on January 28, the short squeeze caused the retailer's stock price to reach a pre-market value of over US$500 per share, nearly 30 times the $17.25 valuation at the beginning of the month. The price of many other heavily shorted securities and cryptocurrencies also increased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meme stock</span> Popular stock among retail investors

A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. Investors in such stocks are often young and inexperienced investors. As a result of their popularity, meme stocks often trade at prices that are above their estimated value – as based on fundamental analysis – and are known for being extremely speculative and volatile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citadel Securities</span> American market making firm

Citadel Securities LLC is an American market making firm providing liquidity and trade execution to retail and institutional clients, headquartered in Miami. The firm also trades futures, equities, credit, options, currencies, and Treasury bonds. It is the largest designated market maker on the New York Stock Exchange.

Truth Social is an alt-tech social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), an American media and technology company majority-owned by 45th and 47th U.S. president Donald Trump. It has been called a "Twitter clone" that competes with Parler, Gab, and Mastodon in trying to provide an alternative to Twitter and Facebook. Truth Social uses Mastodon as its backend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moomoo (company)</span> Retail stock trading app

Moomoo is a global investment and trading platform. Founded in 2018, Moomoo has expanded its operations to Singapore, Australia, Japan, Canada, and Malaysia. Alongside its sister brand, Futubull in Hong Kong, Moomoo serves a user base of over 24.1 million individuals.

References

  1. ↑ "GameStop, AMC Trades to Resume at Chinese Online Brokers" . Bloomberg News . January 29, 2021. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  2. ↑ Wursthorn, Michael; Choi, Euirim (August 20, 2020). "Does Robinhood Make It Too Easy to Trade? From Free Stocks to Confetti" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  3. ↑ Massa, Annie (December 10, 2020). "Webull is winning over traders from US rival". Australian Financial Review . Archived from the original on December 9, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved April 15, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ↑ "ON THE MOVE: Firstrade Appoints Don Montanaro; Webull Promotes Anthony Denier". January 16, 2024. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  6. 1 2 Massa, Annie (December 8, 2020). "Robinhood Is Losing Thousands of Traders to a China-Owned Rival" . Bloomberg News . Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  7. ↑ Zeldin, Lee (July 13, 2023). "Biden's financial regulators give China-backed brokers a hand, but who is surprised?". The Washington Times . Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  8. ↑ Malaysia, Fintech News (May 20, 2024). "Webull Has Officially Launched Its Global Trading App in Malaysia". Fintech News Malaysia. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
  9. ↑ McGregor, Grady (February 2, 2021). "The Robinhood revolt was good for Webull, China's little-known trading app". Fortune . Archived from the original on June 1, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  10. ↑ "UNITED STATESSECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549". www.sec.gov. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  11. 1 2 "Online brokerage Webull targets young Asian traders ahead of IPO". South China Morning Post. August 21, 2024. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Osipovich, Alexander (June 13, 2024). "Webull's China Problem Grows With Tennessee State Ban" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  13. 1 2 "US lawmakers raise concerns over Webull's ties to China, demand data on security risks". ThePrint . December 8, 2024. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Webull Financial LLC". Delaware Department of State: Division of Corporations. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Form ADV - CRD #: 304881" (PDF). SEC Reports. January 12, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  16. ↑ Capelj, Renato (May 6, 2020). "Webull Leverages Crisis To Spur Innovation, Financial Wellness" . MarketWatch . Archived from the original on April 26, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  17. ↑ Graw, Michael (August 20, 2020). "Commission-free brokerage Webull launches desktop platform". TechRadar. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  18. ↑ Osipovich, Alexander (October 16, 2020). "Individual-Investing Boom Fuels Trading in Low-Price Stocks" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on December 9, 2023. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  19. ↑ Vigna, Paul (December 16, 2020). "Bitcoin Tops $20,000 for First Time" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  20. ↑ Crowley, James (January 28, 2021). "Webull follows Robinhood in blocking GameStop, AMC trades after being suggested as alternate trading platform". Newsweek . Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  21. ↑ Perez, Sarah (January 28, 2021). "Robinhood and Reddit top the App Store, as trading apps surge following gamestop mania". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  22. ↑ Vanian, Jonathan (February 2, 2021). "Robinhood, Webull, and Fidelity apps soar amid GameStop controversy". Fortune . Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty form Global Multi-year Partnership with Webull". Brooklyn Nets. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  24. ↑ Young, Jabari (September 27, 2021). "Brooklyn Nets land $30 million per year jersey deal with brokerage platform Webull". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  25. ↑ "Online Broker Webull Considers $400 Million U.S. IPO". Bloomberg. June 8, 2021. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  26. ↑ Dayal, Nikhil (June 10, 2021). "Webull In Talks To File For IPO Later This Year: Report". Benzinga. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  27. ↑ Mccrank, John (March 9, 2023). "Wall Street watchdog fines Webull for options customer approval violations". Reuters. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  28. ↑ "Tommy Tuberville announces bipartisan bill to block Chinese owned companies from owning crypto-currency exchanges". Alabama Today. June 16, 2023. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  29. 1 2 Osipovich, Alexander (April 17, 2024). "Trading App Webull Faces Multistate Probe Over China Ties" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on May 2, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  30. ↑ Li, Yun (February 28, 2024). "Online trading platform Webull is set to go public via a $7.3 billion SPAC deal". CNBC. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.