Shares of the online trading platform Webull slid about 20 percent on Wednesday after a bipartisan congressional committee was reported to have found that the company’s ties to China’s government pose a national-security threat to American finance.
The House Select Committee on China reported a profound gap between how Webull markets itself as an American company and how it is actually controlled, citing its structure, technical workforce, technology and financing. The stock fell to $5.86, a near-four-month low, and is down about 25 percent this year.
Webull pushed back hard. A spokesperson called the report inaccurate, said the company conducts its U.S. business from its global headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a New York office, and stressed that U.S. customer data is stored in the United States with access controlled domestically. The company also said it had tried to cooperate with the committee but had not heard from it for more than 20 months before the report appeared.
A congressional report carries no penalty by itself. The risk for Webull, analysts say, is what follows: referrals to regulators, state inquiries, or pressure from banking and clearing partners. For now, the report weighs on the company’s valuation rather than its financial results — but the scrutiny of Chinese links across American finance is only widening.
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