The committee's report says 62% of the brokerage's workforce sits at a mainland subsidiary and flags the company's direct holding of customer cash. Webull says the report contains "significant inaccuracies."
A congressional report has put a price on the question of who controls Webull.
Shares of the online brokerage fell 18.8% to about $5.91 by early afternoon on Wednesday, from $7.28 on Tuesday, after the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said the company's ties to China pose a national security risk. Volume topped 66 million shares. The decline cut Webull's market value by roughly $730 million, to about $3.1 billion.
The findings
The bipartisan committee said Webull is tied "in structural ways" to China and described "a profound gap" between how it markets itself as an American company and how it is controlled. The panel listed six areas where it sees the connection: who owns the company, who writes its code, the systems it runs on, how its data crosses borders, how it is financed and how it handles compliance.
According to the report, 863 people, or about 62% of Webull's staff, work at Hunan Weibu, a mainland unit that handles technology development and platform operations. The committee contrasted that with earlier company statements that it had no offices or staff in China. Webull holds about $24.6 billion of customer assets, the committee said, and lawmakers grew more worried after it started keeping customers' cash itself in October 2025.
Lawmakers' findings carry no penalty on their own. No fine, ban or limit on trading follows from the report.
The company's response
Webull disputed the findings. "It is deeply disappointing that the Select Committee published a report containing significant inaccuracies and unsupported conclusions without ever seeking clarification from Webull," a spokesperson said. Webull said its American operations are managed from Florida and New York, that it keeps U.S. customer data inside the country, and that more than 20 months had passed since it last heard from the committee. It added that it is ready to answer regulators, including the SEC and FINRA.
The history
The report extends an inquiry that began in December 2024, when the committee's chairman and ranking member wrote to Webull's U.S. chief executive about its relationships with Hunan Weibu and another China-based company, Fumi Technology. At the time, Webull was preparing to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that valued it at $7.3 billion. On Wednesday its market value was less than half that figure.
The platform counts roughly 28 million users worldwide across 18 markets.
Peers
Other brokerages fell far less. Robinhood was down about 2.6%, Futu about 3.2%, Interactive Brokers about 3.4% and UP Fintech about 2.1%. An analyst at Siebert Financial suspended his rating and price target on Webull.
The debate
One reading is that the report raises the chance of regulatory action against a company that holds customer cash directly and has most of its engineers in China, a risk that is hard to size and that investors are discounting heavily.
Another reading is that the report is a statement of concern with no direct legal consequence. The company disputes its accuracy, its U.S. operations are regulated, and the peer moves suggest investors see the issue as specific to Webull rather than a sign of wider action against brokerages.
The next responses
A formal response from Webull to the committee, any filing addressing the report, and any statement from the SEC or FINRA would be the first signs of where the matter goes. Whether the stock holds near $6 over the next several sessions will show how much of the risk investors think is already priced.