UP Fintech (NASDAQ:TIGR) used its August 26 earnings call to report an all-time high in quarterly revenue and a full reversal of the prior quarter’s loss. Revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 jumped 31.4% year over year and 17.7% quarter over quarter to $182.3 million, while GAAP net income came in at $39.4 million, compared with a $26.9 million loss in the first quarter of 2026. That first-quarter loss traced back to a one-time penalty tied to a May 22 rectification, one the company has since treated as a nondeductible tax expense. The turnaround this quarter came almost entirely from two markets, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Singapore And Hong Kong Are Carrying The Growth
Commission income rose 21% year over year and 17% quarter over quarter to $78.3 million, while interest income climbed 36% year over year and 24% quarter over quarter to $79.8 million, and together they pushed total revenue to a record. New funded accounts grew 12.7% quarter over quarter to 32,600, with more than 70% of those additions coming from Singapore and Hong Kong, and total funded accounts reached 1.32 million, up 10.3% year over year. Total client assets rose 3.1% quarter over quarter and 16.7% year over year to $60.7 billion, helped by $1.5 billion in net asset inflows from retail users in those two markets. Hong Kong local account balances alone grew nearly 30% quarter over quarter, a run CEO Wu Tianhua tied to offline promotion and expanded brand exposure.
The company is also filling out its product shelf there, launching fractional share trading for Singapore-listed stocks and REITs and rolling out Cboe index options in Hong Kong. On the investment banking side, UP Fintech underwrote 14 Hong Kong IPOs during the quarter, including AI-sector listings such as Manycore, DeepZero and WengeAI, versus just four US IPOs it helped distribute. Its ESOP business added 50 clients, bringing its total served to 840.
The Costs Of Chasing That Growth Are Climbing
That growth is arriving with a heavier price tag attached. Marketing and branding expenses jumped 86.6% year over year to $18.4 million as the company leaned into brand campaigns in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the average cost of acquiring a new funded account rose to $450 from $420 the prior quarter, with management guiding to a $450 to $550 range for the second half of 2026. Employee compensation and benefits climbed 39.4% year over year to $50 million on severance costs tied to a reorganization of business units; communication and market data expense rose 56.4% year over year to $16.2 million, and general and administrative expense increased 44.6% year over year to $9.8 million. Profitability at the trading level is also thinning out.
The cash equity take rate fell to 3.6 basis points from 5.9 basis points the prior quarter, which CFO John Zeng attributed to high-frequency users increasingly trading through the company’s U.S. subsidiary, where trades carry zero commission. Mainland China’s share of revenue slipped to a 15% to 20% range from 20% to 25% in the first quarter, and its share of client assets fell below 10%, after the company put a monitoring mechanism in place on June 12 to restrict onshore activity by Mainland users. Heading into the third quarter, Wu said trading volume and commissions were running slightly below the second quarter’s pace amid a broader market pullback.
A Split Verdict From Wall Street
Hedge fund ownership of UP Fintech ticked up to 17 funds last quarter from 16 the quarter before, a modest sign of accumulating institutional interest. Short sellers have staked out a real position too, with 5.06% of the float sold short, enough to represent an organized bear camp rather than background noise. That combination suggests that the market hasn’t settled on a single story for this stock. Both camps are watching the same numbers and drawing different conclusions.
Where The Next Quarter Will Tell The Story
UP Fintech’s second quarter shows a business finding real traction in Singapore and Hong Kong, with client assets and new accounts growing fast enough to erase a rough start to the year. But that growth is arriving with a heavier price tag, from marketing spend to acquisition costs to the reorganization charges baked into this quarter’s payroll line. For the growth case to hold, Singapore and Hong Kong need to keep absorbing users and assets that Mainland China can no longer easily supply.
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