Risk scorecard
Each area is scored 0 (clean) to 10 (worst). Higher means more risk.
Regulation
3/10 · LowThree genuine tier-1 SFC licences (AAU948, AHA296, BGX384) are in force with no conditions or recent disciplinary action, but today they are held under KuCoin names, not Prime Cdex.
Identity & transparency
4/10 · ModerateA real 1987 Hong Kong company with every rename on the SFC register, but five names since 2017, an app still published as Premier Q and no working website blur who clients deal with today.
Withdrawals & conduct
3/10 · LowNo fund-integrity complaints on Trustpilot, Reddit or the App Store and one 2021 comment about slow processing; the footprint is too thin to show how withdrawals work.
Reputation
4/10 · ModerateNo regulator warning or SFC Alert List entry for any group name and almost no reviews; the KuCoin group now attached to the companies has a 2025 US guilty plea for its exchange business.
Website claims
3/10 · LowThe archived site and app say the group holds SFC licences, which is true; the app's claims of US SEC and FINRA oversight and SIPC cover for US shares are unverified.
Operational history
3/10 · LowThe company dates from 1987 and has held its securities licence since 2004, but its oldest dated website is from February 2020 and the trading brand changed in 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025.
Who they are
A quick desk file on the company behind the brand.
- Brand: PRIME CDEX (Chinese name 乾立亨). It was the 2022 to 2025 name of a Hong Kong securities, futures and asset-management group. The same companies traded as Tanrich Asia-Pac from 2017 and as Premier Q from 2020. They used the Magic Compass (摩石) name from April 2024 and have carried KuCoin names since August and September 2025.
- Legal entity: KuCoin HK Limited, Hong Kong company 0194199. It was previously Premier Q Securities Limited, then Prime Cdex Securities Limited.
- Registered: Hong Kong. The company was incorporated in 1987 as Root Profit Limited. The SFC lists its principal place of business as Unit 708A, 794-802 Nathan Road, Kowloon.
- Website: premierqlh.com is on file but does not load with a trusted certificate. The SFC lists www.premierqhk.com for all three licensed companies. That site runs on the same server and has the same fault.
- Licences: SFC licence AAU948 (dealing in and advising on securities), held by the legal entity itself. Sister companies hold AHA296 (dealing in and advising on futures) and BGX384 (asset management).
- Offers: Hong Kong and US share trading, IPO subscriptions and futures through its own apps, according to the group's archived site and app listings.
- Not this company: tradenation.com. The FCA register lists it as the website of Trade Nation Financial UK Ltd.
- Age claim: No working broker page states a founding year. The company dates from 1987 and has held its securities licence since 1 November 2004. Its oldest dated website was registered in February 2020.
Regulation
Who really oversees this broker, and what each licence is worth to you.
Proof of regulation on an official register: Yes
We confirmed this broker on a genuine regulator’s register.
Securities and Futures Commission (Hong Kong)
Securities and Futures Commission (Hong Kong)
Securities and Futures Commission (Hong Kong)
Why we reached this verdict
How the evidence adds up.
This profile stays at insufficient evidence. Any figure shown with it is a neutral midpoint, not a measured risk. Two problems stand in the way of a fair rating, and everything we could confirm is clean.
- Two companies on one profile. The name PRIME CDEX, the legal entity Premier Q Securities Ltd and the three SFC licence numbers belong to the Hong Kong group. The website tradenation.com belongs to Trade Nation. So do the countries of the five licence entries for the Bahamas, Seychelles, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. One rating cannot describe both firms.
- The brand is no longer in use. The SFC register shows the futures and asset-management companies renamed Magic Compass on 18 April 2024, then KuCoin on 19 August 2025. The securities company became KuCoin HK Limited on 5 September 2025. No licensed company is called Prime Cdex today.
- No working website. premierqlh.com and premierqhk.com both present a certificate that browsers do not trust. The latest archived copy, from April 2026, presented the site as 乾立亨证券 (Prime Cdex Securities). It offered Hong Kong and US shares under an SFC licence.
- The regulation checks out. All three SFC licences are genuine and in force. AAU948 carries no licensing conditions, and the register shows no public disciplinary action in the past five years. None of the group's names is on the SFC Alert List.
- Almost no client footprint. There is no Trustpilot page, no Reddit discussion and no App Store rating. A third-party broker directory shows two comments. One, from 2021, says deposits and withdrawals took about a week. The other is generic. That is too little to judge how client money is handled.
- Track record. The company dates from 1987, but the group's oldest dated website, premierqhk.com, was registered on 17 February 2020. Under its recent brands, the group's record is about six and a half years.
Evidence ledger
Every finding, with its source and how strongly it points.
E1The SFC public register lists KuCoin HK Limited under CE number AAU948. It has been licensed since 1 November 2004 for dealing in securities, with advising on securities added on 27 June 2016.
E2The SFC name history for AAU948 traces one company through Root Profit Limited (to 1987), Philco Securities (to 1998), Asia-Pac Securities (to 2017), Tanrich Asia-Pac Securities (to 2020), Premier Q Securities Limited (to 31 May 2022) and Prime Cdex Securities Limited (to 5 September 2025). It is now KuCoin HK Limited.
E3The SFC register shows no licensing conditions on AAU948 and no public disciplinary action against it in the past five years.
E4SFC CE AHA296 covers dealing in futures (since 26 September 2016) and advising on futures (since 12 August 2021). The holder was Premier Q Futures Limited, then Prime Cdex Futures Limited until 18 April 2024, then Magic Compass Futures Limited. It has been KuCoin Commodity Futures Limited since 19 August 2025.
E5SFC CE BGX384 covers asset management (since 12 December 2016). The holder was Prime Cdex Asset Management Limited until 18 April 2024, then Magic Compass Asset Management Limited. It has been KuCoin Asset Management Limited since 19 August 2025.
E6The SFC contact records for all three licensees give the same website, www.premierqhk.com, and the same compliance email at kucoin.hk. This ties them into one group.
E7The FCA register lists Trade Nation Financial UK Ltd (FRN 525164, authorised since 9 May 2011, Companies House 07073413) with the website tradenation.com. That domain belongs to a different company from PRIME CDEX.
Hard proofFCA Financial Services RegisterE8The legal disclosures on tradenation.com name six Trade Nation companies, licensed by the FCA, ASIC, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, the FSA Seychelles, the FSCA and the CMVM. None of them is a Premier Q, Prime Cdex or KuCoin company.
Strongtradenation.comE9premierqlh.com, the website on file, was registered on 4 November 2020 through Marcaria and uses Alibaba Cloud name servers.
ModerateVerisign RDAPE10premierqhk.com, the website on the SFC record, was registered on 17 February 2020. It uses the same name servers as premierqlh.com and resolves to the same server address.
ModerateVerisign RDAPE11premierqlh.com does not load: it presents a security certificate that browsers do not trust (checked 21 October 2026). Its archived copy of 25 March 2022 is titled 乾立亨 and was the group's futures website.
ModerateInternet ArchiveE12The archived copy of premierqhk.com from 17 April 2026 presents the site as 乾立亨证券 (Prime Cdex Securities). It offers Hong Kong and US share trading and states that it holds an SFC broker licence.
WeakInternet ArchiveE13Hong Kong company 0194199 is a live private company limited by shares. Its record lists the former names Premier Q Securities Limited, Tanrich Asia-Pac Securities Limited, Asia-Pac Securities Limited, Philco Securities Limited and Root Profit Limited.
E14None of Prime Cdex, Premier Q, 乾立亨, Magic Compass, KuCoin or Trade Nation appears among the roughly 3,200 names on the SFC Alert List (checked 21 October 2026).
ModerateSFC Alert ListE15Trustpilot has no review page for premierqhk.com or premierqlh.com, and no Reddit discussion of Prime Cdex or Premier Q turned up.
WeakTrustpilotE16The Prime Cdex Securities Limited app on the Apple App Store is published by Premier Q Securities Limited. It has no ratings and was last updated on 1 November 2022.
WeakApple App StoreE17A second app, 摩石控股 (Magic Compass Holdings), is also published by Premier Q Securities Limited. It cites SFC licence types 1, 2, 4 and 9, which match the group's licences. It also cites US SEC and FINRA oversight with SIPC cover for US shares, which we did not verify.
WeakApple App StoreE18On 9 June 2022, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing recorded that its futures exchange participant Premier Q Futures Limited had changed its name to Prime Cdex Futures Limited.
E19On 27 January 2025 the US Department of Justice announced that Peken Global Limited, the Seychelles company that operates the KuCoin exchange, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and agreed to pay more than 297 million US dollars. This concerns the exchange business, not the Hong Kong licensees, and is context only.
E20A third-party broker directory shows two short user comments for PRIME CDEX. A January 2021 comment says deposits and withdrawals were slow (about a week). A generic June 2024 comment praises MT4 trading, a product the group does not appear to offer.
Weaka third-party broker directory
The other side
The strongest case in this broker’s favour.
On the points we could check, the case in PRIME CDEX's favour is strong.
- The legal entity is a 1987 Hong Kong company. It has held an SFC securities licence since 2004, under every name it has used.
- The SFC is a tier-1 regulator. Licensed brokers must keep client money and securities apart from their own. The register shows no conditions or recent disciplinary action against this firm.
- Every rename is on the SFC's public register. The changes look like rebranding and a change of ownership, not an attempt to hide.
- No regulator warning, SFC disciplinary action or SFC Alert List entry names Prime Cdex, Premier Q, Magic Compass or the KuCoin Hong Kong companies.
- A broken certificate on old websites fits a retired brand better than a firm that has vanished. The licences are still active under the new names.
What would change this
What we would need to see to revise the verdict.
The profile has to be split before a verdict is possible. After that, these points would move the rating.
- Assessing Trade Nation (tradenation.com, FCA 525164) and the Hong Kong group separately, each against its own website, companies and licences.
- A working website for the renamed companies that names the contracting company, its SFC licence numbers and its fees. That would let the current client offer be checked.
- Clear evidence of who owns the companies now. The KuCoin names and the kucoin.hk compliance email on the SFC record point to the KuCoin crypto group. In January 2025 the US Department of Justice announced that Peken Global, the company that operates the KuCoin exchange, pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business. That case concerns the exchange, not these Hong Kong licensees, but a fresh assessment should weigh it.
- Any SFC disciplinary action, Alert List entry or pattern of withdrawal complaints naming Prime Cdex, Magic Compass or the KuCoin Hong Kong companies would raise the risk.
- Any site still trading as PRIME CDEX today would need close checking, because no licensed company uses that name.
Check it yourself
Official registers and warning lists. Verify every claim first-hand.
SFC register: KuCoin HK Limited (AAU948), formerly Premier Q / Prime Cdex Securities
Licence details for the company behind PRIME CDEX.
SFC register: name history of AAU948
Shows the change from Premier Q and Prime Cdex to KuCoin HK Limited.
SFC register: KuCoin Commodity Futures Limited (AHA296)
The futures sister company, named Prime Cdex Futures Limited until April 2024.
SFC register: KuCoin Asset Management Limited (BGX384)
The asset-management sister company, named Prime Cdex Asset Management Limited until April 2024.
SFC Alert List
Hong Kong's list of unlicensed and suspicious firms. Search any name you are offered.
FCA register: Trade Nation Financial UK Ltd (525164)
The separate UK firm that owns tradenation.com.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this broker’s safety.
Is PRIME CDEX a scam?
We found no evidence that it is, but there is not enough to give a rating. PRIME CDEX was the brand of a genuine SFC-licensed Hong Kong group whose companies now carry the KuCoin name. Its website on file no longer loads, so there is no current PRIME CDEX offer to assess.
Is PRIME CDEX a fraud?
We found no evidence of fraud. No SFC disciplinary action, SFC Alert List entry or regulator warning names Prime Cdex, Premier Q, Magic Compass or the KuCoin Hong Kong companies. No licensed company uses the PRIME CDEX name today, so check any site that uses it against the SFC register.
Is PRIME CDEX regulated?
Yes, through its companies. The legal entity holds SFC licence AAU948 for dealing in and advising on securities, in force since 1 November 2004. The register now lists it as KuCoin HK Limited. Sister companies hold AHA296 for futures and BGX384 for asset management.
Who owns PRIME CDEX now?
In August and September 2025 the three licensed companies were renamed KuCoin HK Limited, KuCoin Commodity Futures Limited and KuCoin Asset Management Limited. Their SFC records list a kucoin.hk compliance email, which points to the KuCoin crypto group. We found no public announcement of the deal.
Is PRIME CDEX the same company as Trade Nation?
No. Trade Nation is a separate, FCA-authorised broker, Trade Nation Financial UK Ltd (FRN 525164), and tradenation.com is its website. We found no connection between Trade Nation and the Hong Kong group behind PRIME CDEX.
Why does the PRIME CDEX website not open?
premierqlh.com presents a security certificate that browsers do not trust. premierqhk.com, the site the SFC lists, has the same fault. That fits a brand that has been retired. Do not enter login details on any page that shows a certificate warning.
Can I withdraw my money from PRIME CDEX?
We found no pattern of withdrawal complaints, but also very few reviews of any kind. Existing securities clients should contact the licensed company that holds their account, now KuCoin HK Limited. If they cannot get their money back, they can complain to the SFC.
Is my money safe with PRIME CDEX?
SFC-licensed brokers must keep client money and securities apart from their own, which is strong protection by world standards. The open questions are who runs the business now and through which website, because the PRIME CDEX brand is no longer in use.
How old is PRIME CDEX?
The legal entity was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1987 and has held its securities licence since 2004. The Premier Q and Prime Cdex names date from 2020 and 2022. The group's oldest dated website was registered in February 2020.
What did PRIME CDEX offer?
Hong Kong and US share trading, IPO subscriptions and futures, through its own apps. Its SFC licences do not include Type 3, the licence needed for leveraged forex trading in Hong Kong.
Is there a clone of PRIME CDEX?
We found no regulator warning about a PRIME CDEX clone. No licensed company uses the name any more, so check any new site trading as PRIME CDEX against the SFC register.
What should I check before opening an account with a Hong Kong broker?
Search the SFC public register by company name or CE number, and compare the website and email shown there with the ones you are using. Check the SFC Alert List as well, and pay only into an account in the licensed company's own name.
What should I do if I think I have been scammed?
Stop sending money and keep every record, including messages and payment receipts. Report it to your bank and to the SFC or your local regulator. Be wary of 'recovery' services that ask for a fee upfront. They are a common follow-up scam.
What we recommend
The practical takeaway from everything above.
If you deal with PRIME CDEX or one of the companies that replaced it, check before you send money.
- Search the SFC public register for KuCoin HK Limited (CE AAU948). Confirm that the company holding your account is the one on the register.
- Be careful with any website or app still using the PRIME CDEX or Premier Q name. Ask which licensed company you are contracting with.
- Pay only into a bank account in the licensed company's own name, never to a person or a third party.
- Do not enter passwords on a site that shows a security certificate warning.
- If you were looking for Trade Nation, use tradenation.com and check its FCA entry (FRN 525164). It is a separate company.
- Existing clients with a dispute can complain to the SFC.
This is an independent assessment of risk, not a legal ruling. Scores and verdicts follow the Wikilix broker-safety methodology and can change as new evidence appears. Review scores are treated with caution when a broker’s reviews look manipulated. Last reviewed October 21, 2026. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, or you represent this broker, please contact us.
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