Venture Smart Financial, a Hong Kong-based financial services firm, is planning to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the first quarter, aiming to grow its assets under management to $500 million by year-end. The company has not yet submitted an ETF application to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), but it is expected to do so shortly.
The SFC announced in December 2023 that it was open to applications for crypto-based ETFs in China’s special administrative region, and issued guidelines for launching such investment products. Hong Kong has implemented a crypto licensing regime for trading platforms in June 2023, with hopes of becoming Asia’s crypto hub. Currently, three crypto-based futures ETFs are listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Livio Weng, the COO of Hong Kong’s first licensed crypto exchange HashKey, mentioned that around ten fund companies in the region are exploring the launch of crypto-based spot ETFs.
Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of 11 spot ETFs on January 10, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have reached over $13 billion in cumulative trading volume. Despite this surge, the excitement surrounding the ETF approvals has waned, leading to a decline in Bitcoin’s price.
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is on a downward trend, trading around $41,300 at the time of writing, with a 10.10% decrease over the last seven days.