Harvest Fund Management, a Chinese asset management firm, has applied for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) through its Hong Kong branch, with expectations high for the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to approve the region’s first crypto-based spot ETFs soon.
Prospects of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong
Tencent News reported that Harvest Fund Management’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF is anticipated to be approved post the Lunar New Year holiday. Concurrently, Livio Weng, CEO of HashKey, Hong Kong’s first licensed cryptocurrency exchange, has indicated that approximately 10 fund companies are preparing to launch similar ETFs in the city.
Venture Smart Financial (VSFG), another Hong Kong-based company, has heightened expectations by announcing plans to Bloomberg to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF for trading within the first quarter of the year.
In the backdrop of these developments, Bloomberg has reported an increased interest in stablecoins within Hong Kong, with several companies, including Harvest Global Investments and VSFG, considering stablecoin-related trials in collaboration with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
Sean Lee of VSFG shared with The Block that the company is gearing up to commence the stablecoin sandbox process early this year, aiming to showcase the potential of programmable digital currency while adhering to regulatory standards. The HKMA has confirmed that details regarding the sandbox process for fiat-based stablecoin issuers will be revealed in due course.