Hong Kong Exchange Lists Asia's First Spot Bitcoin

On Tuesday, April 30, Hong Kong made significant strides in its quest to become a leading regional virtual asset investment hub by launching Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This milestone comes three months after the United States greenlit ETFs linked to Bitcoin's spot price, facilitating greater accessibility to the cryptocurrency for mainstream investors.

Hong Kong's pioneering crypto ETFs, listed on the city's bourse, consist of six funds issued by three managers: Bosera Funds, China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited, and Harvest Global Investments. Each company introduced both spot bitcoin and spot ether ETFs, tradable in both Hong Kong and US dollars. Additionally, ChinaAMC (HK) permitted trading in the Chinese yuan.

Joseph Chan, Hong Kong's undersecretary for financial services, hailed these ETFs as the first spot ETF products of virtual assets in the Asian market, underscoring Hong Kong's leading role in regional virtual asset development. He also announced the government's intention to promptly propose a licensing scheme for over-the-counter virtual asset trading services to the city's legislature.

By the end of trading on Tuesday, the new bitcoin ETFs saw an average price increase of nearly 1.7 percent, while the ether ETFs experienced a modest decline of about 0.5 percent. However, CCData, a digital assets analysis firm, noted on Friday that these new funds were anticipated to attract less inflow compared to their US counterparts. Nonetheless, industry experts believe they could catalyze other nations to approve cryptocurrency ETFs and contribute to the broader adoption of digital assets.