Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has officially approved a number of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the region.
The ChinaAMC, Harvest, and Bosera HashKey Bitcoin and Ether ETFs were approved, according to the official SFC website. Bosera Asset Management’s ETF will be jointly managed with HashKey Capital, hence the firms' names being combined in the listing.
Earlier this month, the securities regulator gave conditional approval—but with this official stamp of approval, trading dates have been set for April 30, confirmed by ChinaAMC in a release shared with Decrypt.
“The spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs offer retail and institutional investors a safe, efficient, and convenient means to invest in virtual assets in a regulated framework.” ChinaAMC’s head of digital assets and head of family office business Thomas Zhu said in a press release, “With the growing adoption of ETFs in institutional asset allocation and retail trading in Hong Kong, we expect robust demand for our offerings.”
It was previously confirmed that the ChinaAMC and Harvest Global Investments ETFs will use digital asset platform OSL as a “sub-custodian partner.” OSL told Decrypt that the conditional approval already represented “substantial completion of the regulatory vetting process” so they were working “intensively” to be ready for launch.
It is yet to be confirmed if investors from mainland China will be able to purchase these ETFs—which could see up to $25 billion enter the market. However, veteran crypto analyst Markus Thielen told Decrypt, this is unlikely for at least six months unless there are significant regulatory changes.
China has a long and rocky history with cryptocurrencies—effectively banning crypto multiple times. However, OSL’s CEO, Patrick Pan, told Decrypt the approval of spot ETFs in Hong Kong could lead to “more progressive” regulation in China and potentially cause a ripple effect across the region.
Decrypt has reached out to HashKey and OSL for comment and will update this story should they respond.