On April 30, Hong Kong’s spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) made a successful debut, attracting more than $200 million in total assets. The Bosera HashKey spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have accumulated 964 Bitcoin (BTC) and 4,290 Ether (ETH), amounting to $71.94 million in assets under management. Additionally, ChinaAMC’s spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have gathered $123.61 million in combined assets, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg.
However, the value of assets garnered by Hong Kong’s crypto ETFs pales in comparison to their counterparts in the United States. During their debut week, US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted nearly $4 billion in assets under management, with a trading volume of $4.5 billion on the first day of trading alone. Eric Balchunas cautioned against setting high expectations for the Hong Kong market, but noted the significance of the local numbers. ChinaAMC’s Bitcoin ETF, for instance, gathered $123 million on its first day, ranking it 6th out of 82 ETFs launched in the past three years in Hong Kong and in the top 20% overall.
One notable feature of Hong Kong’s crypto ETFs is that non-Hong Kong nationals can also subscribe to or purchase units in the ETFs if they meet local regulatory requirements. Moreover, these ETFs allow investors to subscribe to units directly using BTC and ETH, and vice versa, which is not available with their US counterparts.
A survey conducted by Hong Kong-regulated crypto exchange OSL on April 28 revealed that 76.9% of crypto-knowledgeable respondents in the city plan to invest in the newly introduced spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. It’s worth noting that Hong Kong’s crypto ETFs are currently only accessible to the city’s approximately 6.4 million adult residents. Mainland Chinese investors, numbering over 1 billion, are restricted from accessing these ETFs unless they possess a Hong Kong residence permit.