Webull

History

Founding

Webull was founded in 2016 under Hunan Fumi Information Technology, a China-based financial technology company, by Wang Anquan, a former employee of Alibaba Group and Xiaomi. Hunan Fumi Information Technology received backing from Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital, and other investors in China. Fumi Technology was a Hunan-based fintech start-up incubated by Xiaomi and raised about CNY200 million (approximately US$30 million) in a Series B financing round in 2018.

On May 24, 2017, Webull Financial LLC was established as a Delaware limited liability company. It began offering brokerage services in the United States in May 2018. Wang hired Anthony Denier as chief executive of the U.S. brokerage in 2017, and the two mapped out their strategy on napkins at a Mexican restaurant in New York City. Webull Corporation was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in September 2019 as the group's holding company.

Retail trading boom

Webull began offering options trading in December 2019. In May 2020, the company received SEC approval to launch a robo-advisor on its platform. By August 2020, the platform had over 11 million registered users, and in October 2020, it had 750,000 daily active users.

In November 2020, Webull began supporting cryptocurrency transactions. In December 2020, Webull launched trading services in Hong Kong.

During the GameStop short squeeze in January 2021, Webull gained attention as some retail traders looked for alternatives to Robinhood. On January 27, 2021, Webull recorded its highest-ever number of active daily users, at 952,000, and the Webull app was downloaded across the Apple App and Google Play stores an estimated 100,000 times. That week, approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the Webull mobile app, which the company reported as a 1,548% week-over-week increase. On January 28, 2021, Webull was directed by its clearing house to temporarily halt buy orders for stocks affected by the GameStop short squeeze.

In June 2021, Webull was reported to be considering a U.S. initial public offering that could raise up to $400 million.

Restructuring and expansion

In August 2022, Webull terminated its former variable interest entity arrangements with Hunan Fumi and other China-based entities, after which Hunan Fumi was no longer affiliated with the group.

In 2022 and 2023, Webull expanded in several non-U.S. markets, including Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Japan, the United Kingdom and Indonesia.

In July 2023, Webull spun off its cryptocurrency business to its shareholders, with trading continuing through a separate app called Webull Pay. By the end of 2023, Webull had 4.3 million funded accounts and US$8.2 billion in customer assets. In January 2024, Anthony Denier was promoted to group president of Webull Corporation. In November 2024, Webull launched overnight, or extended-hours, trading, expanding the trading window of U.S. stocks for users inside and outside the United States.

In September 2025, Webull completed the acquisition of Webull Pay, reintegrating the cryptocurrency business into the group, and began reintroducing cryptocurrency trading to the main Webull app in the United States, Brazil and Australia.

In August 2026, Webull expanded its partnership with Coinbase to Canada, with Coinbase providing trading and custody infrastructure for Webull's cryptocurrency offering in the country.

SPAC merger and Nasdaq listing

On February 28, 2024, Webull agreed to go public through a business combination with SK Growth Opportunities Corporation (NASDAQ: SKGR), a special-purpose acquisition company, in a deal that valued the company at approximately US$7.3 billion. The proposed valuation drew scrutiny because of Webull's limited financial disclosure at announcement, reliance on payment for order flow and small expected public float.

SK Growth shareholders approved the business combination on March 30, 2025, and the transaction closed on April 10, 2025. Webull's Class A ordinary shares and warrants began trading on the Nasdaq on April 11, 2025 under the ticker symbols BULL and BULLW (incentive warrants traded under BULLZ until their redemption in June 2025). The merger brought Webull to the public market but generated little cash for the company: after shareholder redemptions, Webull disclosed net proceeds of US$430,066 from the transaction.

After the listing, Webull's shares experienced extreme volatility, rising as much as 500% to US$79.56 on April 14, 2025, after closing at US$13.25 on the prior trading day. The initial post-listing surge increased the value of Webull holdings owned by earlier investors, including RIT Capital Partners, which had first invested in Webull in 2021. In April 2026, after Webull's shares had fallen about 70% over the previous year, the company authorized a US$100 million share repurchase program.

Business model and financials

Webull provides a self-directed electronic trading platform available through mobile, desktop and web applications. Depending on jurisdiction, the platform offers trading in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, margin, futures, Fixed income products, cryptocurrency, cash management features and market data tools. In the United States, Webull Financial LLC is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, while Webull operates in other markets through locally licensed brokerage subsidiaries.

Webull operates a commission-free or low-cost brokerage model for self-directed retail investors. In the United States, a substantial part of its trading-related revenue comes from payment for order flow, while in some non-U.S. markets the company more commonly charges commissions directly to customers. The platform is aimed at more active retail investors, including users seeking options tools, extended-hours trading and real-time market data.

For 2025, Webull reported total revenue of US$571.0 million, up from US$390.2 million in 2024. Equity and option order-flow rebates accounted for US$304.1 million, or 53.3% of revenue, making order-flow rebates the company's largest reported revenue category. Interest-related income accounted for US$154.3 million, handling charge income for US$87.3 million and other revenue for US$25.3 million.

Options were the larger component of the company's order-flow rebates in 2025, generating US$210.0 million compared with US$94.2 million from equities. Webull also generates revenue from interest-related activities, including margin financing, customer bank deposits, stock lending and corporate bank deposits. The company has stated that its interest-related income is affected by interest rates, customer cash balances, margin balances and demand for stock lending.

For the second quarter of 2026, Webull reported total revenue of US$198.8 million, an increase of 51% from the previous year, and net income attributable to the company of US$24.4 million.

As of June 30, 2026, Webull reported 28.2 million registered users, 5.13 million funded accounts and US$28.5 billion in customer assets. It conducted trading activities in 18 markets.

Marketing and sponsorships

Webull has used paid digital advertising, referral incentives, free-stock promotions, affiliate marketing and sports sponsorships to acquire customers and promote its brand. In its 2025 annual filing, the company reported marketing and branding expenses of US$152.3 million in 2023, US$138.7 million in 2024 and US$135.9 million in 2025. Webull said most of its advertising and promotion costs were related to paid search and paid social advertising, and that it had reduced free-stock promotions while shifting toward deposit- and asset-transfer-based incentives.

In September 2021, BSE Global, the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, entered into a global multi-year agreement with Webull. Under the agreement, Webull became an official sponsor and online brokerage partner of the teams, with branding that included a jersey patch on Brooklyn Nets uniforms. SportsPro valued the agreement as a US$30 million jersey-patch deal, while CNBC cited people familiar with the agreement as saying it paid the Nets roughly US$30 million per year. Webull later disclosed a total sponsorship fee commitment of US$90 million and said the agreement ended in September 2024.

In April 2025, Webull announced sponsorship deals with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The partnerships included brand placement and community initiatives related to hurricane relief, financial literacy and local outreach. In 2026, the Rays named Webull as the club's first corporate jersey patch partner. The patch incorporated material from the roof of Tropicana Field, which had been damaged during Hurricane Milton in 2024.

Controversies

China ties and data-security scrutiny

Webull has faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and state officials over its historical and operational ties to China, the handling of U.S. customer data and concerns about possible exposure to Chinese Communist Party influence. The company began operations under Hunan Fumi Information Technology, a China-based company backed by Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital and other investors in China. In 2019, Anthony Denier, then Webull's U.S. chief executive, described Webull as "both a U.S. and Chinese company".

Concerns about Webull were raised in congressional hearings and in letters to regulators by U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. In June 2023, Tuberville and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced legislation that would prohibit entities organized in China from acquiring or owning U.S. digital-asset platforms. In announcing the measure, Tuberville separately cited his calls for regulators to investigate Webull and Moomoo over possible access to U.S. customer data from China.

Webull later restructured its China-related corporate arrangements, and has stated that its former variable interest entity arrangements with Hunan Fumi and other China-based entities were terminated in August 2022 and that Hunan Fumi is no longer affiliated with the group. The restructuring did not end concerns about the company's China-based operations. In its 2025 annual filing, Webull said its mainland China operations were limited to research and development and technical support, while its China-based subsidiary Hunan Weibu Information Technology Co., Ltd. employed 863 people, or about 62% of Webull's workforce, as of December 31, 2025. The filing also stated that founder Wang Anquan, a citizen of the People's Republic of China, controlled about 79.2% of Webull's voting power as of March 31, 2026.

In April 2024, attorneys general from 14 U.S. states launched an inquiry into Webull's handling of U.S. customer data and its historical ownership and operations in China. The inquiry was initiated by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and focused on whether Webull had adequate protections for sensitive investor data from the Chinese Communist Party. In June 2024, Tennessee banned Webull on government-issued devices, citing security risks related to its ties to China.

Webull has said that U.S. customer information for Webull Financial is stored on U.S. servers and that any access by employees outside the United States is restricted, temporary, need-based and overseen by the U.S. team. Denier similarly said in 2024 that Webull operates each brokerage locally and that no one outside the United States has access to U.S. customer information.

Regulatory actions

In March 2023, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Webull Financial LLC US$3 million over its approval of customers for options trading and its handling of customer complaints. FINRA said Webull approved more than 2,500 customers under the age of 21 for a level of options trading that required three years of options-trading experience. FINRA also said programming errors led Webull to approve more than 9,000 options accounts even though the customers did not meet the firm's criteria.

In November 2023, the Massachusetts Securities Division fined Webull US$500,000 for compliance failures as its customer base grew rapidly. The regulator said Webull failed to keep up with customer complaints, regulator inquiries and internal oversight. Webull agreed to hire an independent compliance consultant and conduct annual compliance reviews for three years.

In November 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined Webull Financial US$125,000 over incomplete suspicious activity reports. The SEC said Webull's reports omitted required information about suspicious transactions.

In May 2025, FINRA censured Webull Financial LLC and fined it US$1.6 million over failures involving social-media marketing, customer disclosures and trading controls. FINRA said Webull failed to properly supervise and keep records of paid social-media promotions, some of which made exaggerated claims or did not fairly present investment risks. The case also covered required customer disclosures, market-data display and controls for erroneous orders.

In August 2026, FINRA censured Webull Financial and fined it US$115,000 after finding that the company had routed options orders with inaccurate origin codes between October 2021 and April 2023, resulting in approximately 180,000 options contracts being coded as customer orders rather than professional-customer orders. FINRA also found that Webull's supervisory system and written procedures were not reasonably designed to ensure compliance with options-order coding requirements.