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Hong Kong-listed spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are set to debut in the coming minutes. Anticipating the launch, Zhu Haokang, director of digital asset management and family wealth at China Asset Management, expressed confidence that the launch scale of Hong Kong’s virtual asset spot ETF will exceed the initial size of $125 million in the United States. .
“We are confident that the initial listing size (more than $125 million) of the Hong Kong virtual asset spot ETF can exceed the US first-day issuance size,” Haokang said at a press briefing.
Haokang confirmed that mainland Chinese investors are prohibited from participating in these ETFs, while compliant Hong Kong qualified investors, institutional investors, individual investors and international investors are approved.
He also noted that ETFs have received significant interest globally, particularly in regions such as Singapore and the Middle East where similar products are lacking. Physical subscription allows Bitcoin miners to invest directly using their Bitcoin holdings.
OSL’s Wayne Huang said the possibility of Ethereum being classified as a security in the U.S. would not impact Hong Kong cryptocurrency ETFs due to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) independent regulatory process.
He added that Hong Kong could launch the world’s first spot Ethereum ETF as the SFC has already clearly defined the regulatory framework by considering Ethereum as an unsecured virtual asset.
“Hong Kong already has a clear definition of Ethereum. Although Ethereum is not a security, it is the first non-securities virtual asset to be included in Hong Kong supervision, along with Bitcoin, and is one of the two entities that can be offered to individual investors,” Huang said.
In addition, he said discussions are underway to expand the range of virtual assets available in the Hong Kong ETF market.
The launch is expected to have a positive impact on cryptocurrency prices by increasing liquidity, encouraging regulatory compliance, and opening new capital channels.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on the upcoming Hong Kong debut of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, suggesting that this will be an opportunity to directly compare demand and investment flows for Ethereum ETFs with Bitcoin ETFs. .
He estimates that Ethereum could account for less than 10% of net flows compared to Bitcoin.
This is also the first time we have a clear look at how popular Eth is compared to BTC in an ETF format. What percentage of net flows do you think they will account for? I think it’s less than 10%. James is more optimistic. https://t.co/ZKggtAGQIH
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 29, 2024
Balchunas previously said that the impact of this launch will be minimal compared to the U.S. market, considering the early stage and fee structure of the Hong Kong ETF market, which currently has only $50 billion in assets, and investments by Chinese investors. limit.
However, he sees a Hong Kong-listed cryptocurrency ETF as a long-term positive for Bitcoin adoption.
Bitcoin price has been rising over the past few hours. It’s currently trading at $64,000, according to CoinGecko, up more than 1.5% after falling below $62,000 this morning.
Meanwhile, Ethereum is hovering around $3,200, down 1.4% over the past 24 hours.
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