Asia's first spot bitcoin, ether ETFs start trading in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Tuesday (Apr 30) launched trading of Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), moving forward in the city's race to become a regional virtual asset investment hub.

The debut comes three months after the United States gave the green light to ETFs pegged to bitcoin's spot price, making it easier for mainstream investors to add the unit to their portfolio.

Hong Kong's pioneering crypto ETFs on the city's bourse include six funds issued by three managers - Bosera Funds, China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited and Harvest Global Investments.

Each company issued a spot bitcoin and a spot ether ETF, which can be traded in both Hong Kong and US dollars, while ChinaAMC (HK) also allowed trading in the Chinese yuan.

"These are the first spot ETF products of virtual assets in (the) Asia market, which has proven Hong Kong's leading status in virtual asset development in the region," Joseph Chan, the city's undersecretary for financial services, said at the bell tolling ceremony in the morning.

He added that the government would submit a proposal for creating a licensing scheme for over-the-counter virtual asset trading services to the city's legislature "as soon as possible".

By the close of trade Tuesday, the new bitcoin ETFs recorded an average price rise of nearly 1.7 per cent, while the ether ETFs dropped about 0.5 per cent.

CCData, a digital assets analysis firm, said Friday that the new funds were "predicted to not attract the same level of inflows as those in" the United States.

But "industry experts believe they might encourage other nations to approve cryptocurrency ETFs and could help promote the wider adoption of digital assets", it said.

Hong Kong also allows investors to carry