Hong Kong Greenlights Spot Bitcoin, Ether ETFs

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

15th April 2024 - 3 min read

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has officially approved several spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange traded funds (ETF) today, marking a milestone in the country’s ambition to become a regional crypto hub.

While the Hong Kong SFC itself has not released an official statement regarding this matter (as of the time of writing), several financial institutions have already announced their successful applications for the launch of BTC and ETH spot ETFs. These include major Chinese asset manager China Asset Management, Bosera Asset Management (Hong Kong unit), and HashKey Capital Limited. Harvest Global Investments also received an in-principal approval.

In terms of offerings, China Asset Management said that it is planning to issue spot BTC and ETH ETFs in collaboration with digital asset platform OSL and Bank of China subsidiary BOCI (BOC International). Bosera and HashKey, on the other hand, will work together to launch two spot crypto ETFs: the Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF and Bosera HashKey Ether ETF.

Harvest Global, meanwhile, is also set to collaborate with OSL to issue two ETFs in the near future. That said, none of the asset managers have yet to reveal a concrete timeline as to when they will officially roll out their products.

The Hong Kong SFC’s green light came approximately three months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted its own approval to the first US-listed BTC ETFs, after several years of reservation and reticence. It is also the first to approve spot ETFs for Ether, which the US SEC has still not made a decision on. The Asian nation appears to have adopted a more welcoming stance with regard to digital assets; it implemented a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms just last year, in June, allowing these platforms to accept retail investors while providing protection for investors from risky practices.

Moving forward, Hong Kong also has plans to introduce a licensing framework for the issuance of stablecoin.

Following this update, the digital asset market reacted positively, as BTC prices increased to about US$66,800 (up around 3.9%) in the last 24 hours, whereas ETH price has increased to approximately US$3,264 – up by 7.3% (as of the time of writing). This is a recovery from the mass selling of crypto assets over the weekend, following an escalation in the Middle East conflict between Iran and Israel; Bitcoin fell below US$62,000 on Saturday from around US$70,000 – although it eventually rebounded slightly on Sunday to trade near US$65,000.

(Sources: The Star, The Block)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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