The financial market regulator in Hong Kong will approve as many as 4 bitcoin spot ETFs in a few days.
BTC ETFs in Hong Kong
The news in which I wrote that BTC ETFs may start operating in Hong Kong has not yet cooled down, and the Tencent News news site reported that these funds are to be approved by April 15.
The website cites several sources from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. These say the same thing: the regulatory body speeds up the decision-making process and is expected to approve applications regarding the creation of ETFs within a few days.
The issuers of the first spot BTC ETFs in the region are Boshi Fund, Value Partners Financial, Harvest International and China Asset Management.
Once the formalities are completed, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will take over. The company will have to finalize fund listing procedures and prepare for issuance within two weeks.
Julia Leung, Director-General of the Commission, during her keynote speech at the HSBC Global Investment Summit, highlighted the need for responsible use of innovative technologies such as distributed ledger technology and tokenization to improve efficiency in the financial industry, while ensuring investor protection.
Let us add that if the authorities of the city-state actually approve the applications for the creation of ETFs, the region will lag behind the USA by only about four months. At the beginning of January, the US Securities and Exchange Commission authorized the creation of the first 11 BTC ETFs.
Currently, the 10 largest spot bitcoin ETFs manage approximately $57 billion in assets. It is worth noting, however, that the three largest funds account for 88% of this amount.
It still cannot be ruled out that spot ether ETFs will also appear on the market this year.
Market development in Hong Kong
To increase local adoption of Web3 technology, ZA Bank in Hong Kong is set to offer its clients specialized banking for stablecoin issuers, offering the market custody of fiat reserves to secure digital assets. The bank's plans were announced recently, on April 5.
