Trading platform Webull's China ties are national security risk: Congress
A U.S. congressional committee has identified investment platform Webull as a national security risk due to its structural ties to China. The report alleges that the company's data and engineering operations are subject to Chinese government influence.
Why it matters
This highlights growing geopolitical tensions regarding data privacy and the influence of foreign-owned financial technology platforms on U.S. markets.
Digital investment platform Webull , which counts 28 million global users , is quietly "tied in structural ways" to China's government, representing a national security threat to U.S. finance, according to a bipartisan congressional panel's findings shared exclusively with CNBC.
The bipartisan House Select Committee on China in its new report being released Wednesday found "a profound gap" between Webull's public marketing as "an American company" and actual control of the St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm.
"Webull's ownership architecture, technical workforce, technology infrastructure, cross-border data routing, corporate financing, and compliance frameworks are tied in structural ways to the People's Republic of China," the committee found.
The panel asserted that national security concerns around the company have "escalated" since October 2025, when Webull began carrying customer cash directly, according to a regulatory filing the panel cited. The committee alleges that creates a "structural exposure of billions of dollars in American capital."
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