This article was adapted and translated from 香港突發：下週推出比特幣ETF
By 碳链价值
On April 10, Golden Ten reported that Hong Kong, China, may launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this month, with the first products likely to be announced next week. The timeline would make Hong Kong the first city in Asia to launch such a popular ETF, and much sooner than the industry expected. One of the sources said regulators have accelerated the approval process.
According to Tencent financial reports, in the early hours of April 10, the Hong Kong SFC updated the list of fund companies with virtual asset management on its official website, and added Harvest International and Huaxia Funds, that is, in addition to the original traditional asset management business of these public funds, the new addition of virtual asset management business.
This means that the leading public fund companies in the Mainland have finally entered the virtual asset industry in Hong Kong and are now qualified to issue relevant cryptocurrency fund products.
According to the official website of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, there are 18 funds in Hong Kong that can carry out asset management in the "Coin Community". However, Harvest International and ChinaAMC are among the first batch of public funds in Hong Kong to enter the "Coin Community".
Tencent Financial reported that the proposal to be met for the submission of a Bitcoin spot ETF in Hong Kong involves at least 20 partner organizations, including Bitcoin custodian banks and market makers, and organizations holding integrated accounts for virtual asset trading. It is unlikely that any organization in Hong Kong will be able to complete all the application information in about half a month if the Hong Kong application process and regular communication channels are strictly adhered to.
According to the process in Hong Kong, after the first batch of Bitcoin spot ETFs were approved by the SFC on April 15, the HKEx would need about 2 weeks to prepare for the product's listing on the shelves, etc. However, the entire Bitcoin spot ETF project had been communicated with the HKEx and the HKEx in advance, and the project was expected to be completed in about 10 days. The SFC originally planned to launch the Bitcoin Spot ETF in Hong Kong around April 25th and no later than the end of April.
On January 11, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 Bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and others, which attracted extra attention from global investors.
According to HODL15Capital, as of April 9, BlackRock has accumulated 266,102 Bitcoins. Fidelity has accumulated 150,694 Bitcoins. ARK has accumulated 43,643 Bitcoins. Taking into account the shades of gray, the 11 Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated a total of 838,729 Bitcoins, valued at nearly $22 billion. Since the launch of the Bitcoin ETFs, except for Grayscale, the other 10 institutions have basically been in a continuous reserve status, and only Grayscale has been in an outflow status due to its high fee rates and redemptions by investing institutions. On April 9, the Bitcoin ETF had a total inflow of -$19 million due to Grayscale redemptions.