UP Fintech Q2 2026 Earnings: Record $182M Revenue, Lower Take Rate

A record quarter after the fine

UP Fintech Holding, the Nasdaq-listed parent of the online broker Tiger Brokers, has recovered from a bad start to 2026. For the quarter ended June 30, the company reported total revenue of US$182.3 million, a record. That figure was 31.4% higher than a year earlier and 17.7% higher than the first quarter.8 Income from operations came to US$56.8 million, up 19.5% from the prior quarter and 12.6% from a year earlier.8 GAAP net income attributable to shareholders was US$39.4 million and non-GAAP net income was US$42.8 million. In the first quarter, the company posted net losses of US$26.9 million and US$23.8 million on the same two measures.8

The first-quarter loss came from regulatory penalties. Chinese authorities imposed roughly US$59.7 million in fines and confiscated gains over unlicensed cross-border brokerage activity.11 Management said that if the penalty is stripped out, GAAP and non-GAAP net income both rose about 20% from the first quarter.10 Revenue beat expectations by a wide margin. The company's US$182.3 million compared with a FactSet consensus of US$153.9 million.9

A "return to profitability" reading leaves out the year-over-year comparison. Second-quarter GAAP net income was slightly lower than the US$41.4 million earned a year earlier. Diluted earnings per ADS fell from US$0.23 to US$0.21.8 Revenue grew by about a third while profit did not grow. That gap explains much of what follows.

Where the money came from

The two main revenue lines both grew. Commission income was US$78.3 million, up 21% from a year earlier and 17% from the first quarter. Interest income was US$79.8 million, up 36% and 24%.10 The press-release summary uses a broader "interest-related income" figure of about US$83 million, up 35.1%. That explains why some reports give a slightly different interest number.4 Other revenues, which include wealth management and exchange revenue, rose 67.6% to US$21.0 million.8

The interest line matters most for the business model. Margin financing and securities lending balances grew 28.9% year over year to US$7.4 billion.12 Interest expense increased 24.1% to US$21.5 million because the company needed more funding for that lending.8 Spread income now exceeds commissions. This is the same pattern seen at retail brokers that have pushed trading fees toward zero. Revenue now depends more on client balances and leverage and less on how often clients trade.

Non-trading revenue is also growing. Tiger underwrote 14 Hong Kong IPOs and distributed four U.S. IPOs in the quarter. It added 50 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) clients, bringing the total to 840.10 Hong Kong IPO subscriptions through the platform reached a record US$124 billion, 577% higher than a year earlier.11

The take-rate problem

The most important operating figure on the call was the cash equity take rate, meaning how much commission Tiger earns per dollar of stock traded. It fell to 3.6 basis points from 5.9 basis points in the first quarter.7 Chief financial officer John Zeng said the main cause was a roughly US$15 billion increase in trading volume at Tiger Brokers U.S. Tiger charges local U.S. users no commission, so most of that volume produced no revenue.10 He also said some high-frequency traders were routing activity through the U.S. subsidiaries.

According to one independent breakdown, the U.S. unit added about US$10 billion of sequential volume in the first quarter before the US$15 billion increase in the second.13 Total trading volume rose to US$345.3 billion from US$323.9 billion.10 The broader point is that Tiger is buying U.S. market share with zero-commission pricing. Each dollar of that growth lowers the blended take rate, even while it helps volumes and client assets. U.S. client assets grew nearly 50% from the first quarter. Whether that business can earn money through margin lending, payment for order flow or cross-selling is not yet clear from these results.

Paying more for better-funded clients

Tiger added 32,600 newly funded accounts, 12.7% more than in the first quarter. Total funded accounts reached about 1.32 million, up 10.3% from a year earlier.10 Singapore and Hong Kong together supplied more than 70% of new accounts, split roughly evenly. Australia and New Zealand supplied about 25%, and the U.S. the rest.

Those accounts cost more to win. Marketing spending rose 86.6% year over year to US$18.4 million as the company invested in its brand in Hong Kong and Singapore. Average customer acquisition cost rose to about US$450 from US$420 in the first quarter.10 Management expects acquisition costs of US$450 to US$550 in the second half.10 Its argument is that the new clients bring more money. Average net asset inflow per new funded account rose from under US$20,000 in the first quarter to over US$25,000 in the second. The company also ran a SpaceX-themed marketing campaign around the IPO to raise brand awareness.5

Not everyone accepts that argument. One independent analysis notes that management set a target of 150,000 new funded accounts for the full year. The first quarter delivered only 28,900, about 19% of the goal.13 Even with the second-quarter improvement, that analysis calls the trend sluggish given how much marketing has risen. It warns that relying on asset inflows alone may not sustain growth if account growth keeps falling short.13

The skeptics have the stronger case on the numbers. To reach 150,000, Tiger would need well over 40,000 new accounts in each of the last two quarters. Management's own guidance points to third-quarter additions flat with or slightly above the second quarter. Higher assets per account is a good trend, but it does not substitute for scale.

Cutting ties with mainland clients

The largest structural change is that Tiger is reducing its reliance on mainland Chinese retail clients after the regulatory action. Mainland retail clients now account for less than 10% of total client assets. Their share of revenue fell from 20–25% in 2025 and the first quarter to 15–20% in the second quarter. Management said there have been no new policy changes since a monitoring mechanism took effect on June 12. It put second-quarter mainland retail net outflows at about US$500 million, mostly between May 22 and June 12, and said the pace has slowed. One machine-generated transcript describes this figure as an "inflow." Given the context and other summaries of the call, it was an outflow.

This shift explains the focus on Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong client assets have grown at double-digit rates for five quarters in a row. In the second quarter they rose nearly 30% from the first quarter and roughly tripled from a year earlier.5 Singapore trading volume rose 92% year over year, and Hong Kong order counts rose 71%.11 New products include fractional share trading in Singapore and new index options in Hong Kong.10 The company also expanded its ETF and derivatives coverage and upgraded its TigerAI analytics tools.4

Costs are rising faster than revenue

Total operating costs rose 47% year over year to US$103.9 million, faster than the 31% growth in revenue.5 Employee compensation rose 39% to US$50 million, which management attributed partly to severance from a reorganization of business units. Communication and market data costs rose 56% to US$16.2 million. General and administrative expenses rose 45% to US$9.8 million on higher professional service fees.10 An analyst from CICC also asked about an effective tax rate near 28% and a loss of more than US$2 million in other net items.

The severance and professional-fee costs should not recur, but the marketing increase is a deliberate choice. With CAC guidance going up, margins are unlikely to widen quickly.

Market reaction and outlook

The shares fell more than 5% in early trading after the release, then recovered most of the loss and closed down 0.1% that day.12 The flat close fits a quarter with strong headline numbers and weaker figures underneath. The company had repurchased about US$5 million of ADSs under a US$50 million buyback announced on June 2.10

For the third quarter to date, management said net inflows and mark-to-market gains each exceeded US$1 billion. Client assets were up by a high single-digit percentage from the second quarter. Trading volume and commissions were slightly below the second quarter's high levels because of a market pullback.

Overall, Tiger is moving from a cross-border broker dependent on mainland Chinese clients to a regulated, locally licensed platform across Asia-Pacific. Its revenue is increasingly driven by interest income and client balances rather than trading commissions. The record revenue shows the transition is producing results. The lower take rate, slower-than-planned account growth and rising acquisition costs show it is expensive. Investors will look to the next two quarters to see whether higher client balances can make up for those costs.