Following the recent successful launch of a Bitcoin Futures ETF, Samsung Investment arm is considering launching a spot-Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong.
Samsung Asset Management has said it is thinking about launching a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the city’s market if laws allow it, after the success of its Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Hong Kong.
Sam Park, the chief executive of Samsung Asset Management in Hong Kong, remarked in an interview with Bloomberg that was published on January 13 that “It truly relies on how policy is going to be evolved.” He continued by saying that Hong Kong’s leaders “obviously” want to turn the area into a center for the cryptocurrency industry.
Rebecca Sin, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said that “Hong Kong is well positioned to become Asia’s crypto gateway,” and she anticipates that by year’s end, spot Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) products would be accepted there.
A futures market is one where players purchase and sell contracts to be completed at a later time, while a spot market is one where the exchange of financial instruments is done immediately.
The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Market, which is presently the only exchange in Asia to handle the trading of Bitcoin futures ETFs, welcomed Samsung’s Bitcoin futures ETF on January 13. The ETF’s price has already increased by 4.2% as of the time of publication.
Two ETFs administered by CSOP Asset Management garnered $73.6 million in investments prior to their Dec. 16 debut, another Hong Kong futures ETF that has received interest.
“The ETFs do not invest in actual Bitcoin,” said CSOP CEO Yi Wang at the time, “and […] there are greater regulatory protections for investors compared to tokens sold on unregulated marketplaces.”
Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu said that Hong Kong was looking more appealing as a listing site compared to the United States in a Twitter Spaces interview with Bloomberg Asia on January 5:
“The U.S. obviously seemed to be the market at the time that was perhaps a good one. But I would argue that, you know, places like Asia, particularly Hong Kong, are starting to look pretty attractive with their virtual asset policies, […] with their desire to basically be a leader in the space.”
The fact that so much cryptocurrency activity is leaving the United States is often attributed to a lack of legal clarity, which has led politicians to push for crypto legislation as quickly as feasible.
