Spot Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs Approved in Hong Kong

The news comes just months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted approval to multiple spot Bitcoin ETF applications.

2 min read

Apr 15, 2024

Hong Kong's securities regulator has given conditional approval for a number of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF applications.

In separate statements Monday morning, China Asset Management and Harvest Global Investments announced the in-principle approval of their applications by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Harvest Global Investments subsequently deleted its statement, likely pending an official statement from the regulator.

Digital asset platform OSL announced in separate press releases that it would act as the "sub-custodian partner" for China Asset Management and Harvest Global Investments' ETFs.

Bosera Asset Management also reportedly announced that it had received conditional approval for its ETF application, which will be jointly managed with HashKey Capital.

In a statement, OSL CEO Patrick Pan said that its appointment as sub-custodian to China Asset Management, "demonstrates our commitment to advancing digital asset investments in Hong Kong, mirroring the trend of reputable partnerships seen in the U.S. market."

The news comes just months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted approval to multiple spot Bitcoin ETF applications, which have seen billions of dollars in inflows since their launch in January.

However, the U.S. SEC has proved more reluctant to approve a spot Ethereum ETF, delaying its response to multiple applications. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation revealed that it is being investigated by a "state authority"—which, while not confirmed to be a U.S. regulator, has contributed to a growing pessimism among analysts as to the chances of an Ethereum ETF being approved.

While the Chinese mainland has engaged in a years-long crackdown on cryptocurrency, Hong Kong has embraced the sector, rolling out a Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) licensing regime in June 2023 in a bid to position itself as a crypto hub.

In August 2023, HashKey and OSL became the first licensed crypto exchanges to offer services to retail users in Hong Kong.

Get crypto news straight to your inbox--

sign up for the Decrypt Daily below. (It’s free).

Get Email!

United States of Bitcoin? These States Are Considering BTC Reserves

Donald Trump and his political allies are plugging away at plans to stockpile Bitcoin at a national level in the U.S. Treasury. And now, with the asset’s price repeatedly soaring to new peaks since Election Day, some U.S. states are following suit. So far, three states are fielding proposals to establish strategic Bitcoin reserves, while digital asset advocates are calling for other local governments to do the same. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Is Now on the Table—Here's How It Could Work Here'...

AI Won’t Tell You How to Build a Bomb—Unless You Say It’s a 'b0mB'

Remember when we thought AI security was all about sophisticated cyber-defenses and complex neural architectures? Well, Anthropic's latest research shows how today’s advanced AI hacking techniques can be executed by a child in kindergarten. Anthropic—which likes to rattle AI doorknobs to find vulnerabilities to later be able to counter them—found a hole it calls a “Best-of-N (BoN)” jailbreak. It works by creating variations of forbidden queries that technically mean the same thing, but are expre...

Elon Musk and Dogecoin: How the Billionaire Became the 'Dogefather'

As Dogecoin makes a comeback off the back of Bitcoin’s surge, some may be pondering: Where did the asset come from? What’s it for? And what’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk got to do with it? The original meme coin’s boom largely has the world’s richest man to thank. Musk’s obsession with shitposting helped boost the coin to a top 10 cryptocurrency. It’s been a wacky ride over the past few years, culminating in Musk's appointment to co-lead a government agency called D.O.G.E.—yes, really. But we'll explai...

News

Courses

Deep Dives

Coins

Videos