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Hong Kong’s securities regulator has given conditional approval to a number of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF applications.
In separate statements on Monday morning, China Asset Management and Harvest Global Investments announced that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had approved their application in principle. Harvest Global Investments has since taken down the statement and is waiting for an official statement from regulators.
Digital asset platform OSL announced in a separate press release that it will serve as a “sub-custodian partner” for China Asset Management and Harvest Global Investments’ ETFs.
Bosera Asset Management also reportedly announced that it received conditional approval for its application for an ETF jointly managed with Hash Key Capital.
OSL CEO Patrick Pan said in a statement that OSL’s appointment as China Asset Management’s sub-custodian “reflects the trend of reputable partnerships seen in the U.S. market and advances digital asset investments in Hong Kong.” “It shows our will to do it,” he said.
This news comes just months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved applications for several spot Bitcoin ETFs, which have attracted billions of dollars in inflows since their launch in January.
However, the US SEC has been more reluctant to approve a spot Ethereum ETF, delaying its response to several applications. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation said it was being investigated by “state authorities,” which were not identified as U.S. regulators but contributed to growing pessimism among analysts about the chances of an Ethereum ETF being approved.
While mainland China has been cracking down on cryptocurrencies for years, Hong Kong has embraced the sector, launching a virtual asset trading platform (VATP) licensing scheme in June 2023 to establish itself as a cryptocurrency hub.
In August 2023, HashKey and OSL became the first licensed cryptocurrency exchanges to serve retail users in Hong Kong.