A reporter from the brokerage firm China learned that the Hong Kong subsidiary of Huaxia Fund, Harvest Fund, and Boss Fund simultaneously released information on April 15. The first batch of Hong Kong Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETF products they applied for were “approved in principle”. Among them, Bosch Fund's Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETF products were jointly applied for with companies under the company's former general manager. In addition to the three public equity giants mentioned above, Southern Dongying, a Hong Kong subsidiary of China Southern Fund, previously obtained the first Bitcoin and Ethereum futures ETF products.

Harvest Huaxia Bitcoin ETF received approval in principle

Harvest International Asset Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Harvest Fund, announced on April 15 that the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission has approved Harvest's investment in Bitcoin and Ethereum's two major digital asset spot ETFs in principle. Harvest invests in the two major digital asset spot ETFs through OSL Digital Securities Ltd., the first digital asset platform licensed and insured by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, to effectively solve problems such as excessive margin requirements, price premiums and rollover losses due to lack of bears, thus reflecting the immediate value of Bitcoin more accurately.

Han Tongli, CEO of Harvest International, a Hong Kong subsidiary of Harvest Fund, said that Harvest's investment in two major digital currency spot ETF products was approved in principle, which not only highlights Hong Kong's competitive advantage in the digital asset field, but also shows Harvest International's relentless pursuit of product innovation and meeting the diversified needs of investors. It also means that Harvest Fund's Hong Kong subsidiary continues to innovate in the blockchain and AI investment fields.

On the same day, Huaxia Fund (Hong Kong) announced that it has obtained approval from the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission to provide virtual asset management services to investors. It is now planned to issue ETF products that can invest in spot Bitcoin and spot Ethereum. Huaxia Fund (Hong Kong), virtual asset industry partner OSL Digital Securities Co., Ltd., and custodian Bank of China International UK Prudential Trust Limited are actively researching and deploying this.

Although the above product is the first spot product, it is not the first Bitcoin product laid out by a Hong Kong subsidiary of a public fund. As the market's acceptance of virtual assets is increasing, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission allowed the market to launch an ETF that tracks virtual asset futures on October 31, 2022. As a result, Southern Dongying, a Hong Kong subsidiary of Southern Fund, obtained the first Bitcoin futures license in Hong Kong - Southern Dongying Bitcoin Futures ETF and Southern Dongying Ether Futures ETF were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 16, 2022, making it the first Bitcoin and An Ether Futures ETF, which marks the first time retail investors in Asia have access to virtual assets.

A Chinese reporter from the brokerage firm noticed that in order to make it easier for investors to trade through traditional brokerage firms or investment accounts, the minimum investment amount is about 100 US dollars. An actively managed investment strategy makes the composition of portfolios, transfer strategies, and handling any market disruptions and extreme situations more flexible. In addition, the fund assets of the Bitcoin Futures ETF are independently maintained by the custodian, and investors' assets are greatly protected under strict supervision. The listing price of the Bitcoin Futures ETF and the Ethereum Futures ETF mentioned above is about HK$7.75 per unit. Each lot is traded at an annual management fee of 1.99%, receiving initial investments of US$58.89 million and US$1974 million respectively.

Bosch joined hands with a former executive company to apply

It is worth mentioning that unlike Huaxia Fund and Harvest Fund, which received the principle approval of Bitcoin product applications, the ETF products of Bosch Fund's Hong Kong subsidiary, were jointly applied for with Hashkey Capital Limited, a Hong Kong Bitcoin investment agency. Two virtual asset spot ETFs, including a Bitcoin spot ETF and an Ethereum spot ETF, have been conditionally approved by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission.

It is worth mentioning that the current chairman of HashKey is Xiao Feng, the former general manager of Bosch Fund. Allegedly, Bosch International and HashKey Capital will make full use of the two sides' leading expertise and ecological resources in the traditional finance and virtual asset industry to jointly promote the issuance of Bitcoin and Ether spot ETFs, and provide investors with a safe, compliant and convenient way to directly participate in the two mainstream virtual asset markets of Bitcoin and Ether.

Bosch International said that it can work with HashKey to open up a new chapter in the Hong Kong virtual asset market. The issuance of virtual asset spot ETFs will not only provide investors with new asset allocation options, but will also further strengthen Hong Kong's position as an international financial center and virtual asset hub. HashKey Capital said that Hong Kong regulators approved the listing of virtual asset spot ETFs this time, building a bridge for traditional institutions to allocate virtual assets and greatly broadening the reach of mainstream investors and retail investors with virtual assets.

Bitcoin's AI concept is favored by public funds

Industry insiders believe that the value of Bitcoin is increasingly being viewed as one of the AI artificial intelligence racetracks.

Just as people in the Hong Kong subsidiary of Harvest Fund regard Bitcoin as an artificial intelligence AI and blockchain circuit, and as the first person for a former public fund executive to participate in virtual assets such as Bitcoin, Xiao Feng, Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group also emphasized this view a few days ago. Xiao Feng said that blockchain technology has completed the stage from 0 to 1 and is currently in a critical period from 1 to 10, which indicates a large-scale explosion of applications. Xiao Feng stressed that 2024 to 2034 will be the “1995 moment” of Web3, similar to the golden decade of Internet applications between 1995 and 2005. This will be the decade of the explosion of Web3 applications and value discovery. He mentioned that the two pillars of Web3 are blockchain and AI. Blockchain solves the “impossible triangle” problem through hierarchical and sharding technology, and AI's “universal multi-modal model” also supports application innovation. Xiao Feng also mentioned that disruptive innovations in the Web3 platform include digital nativity, digital autonomy, and value sharing, which require development from edge to core, from native to twin, from nature to manifestation, and starting from first principles, and called for the development of Web3 “browsers” and “graphic operating systems”, which may be based on AI-based natural language processing technology.

Previously, Meitu, a Hong Kong stock listed company with artificial intelligence AI technology, purchased a large amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021. Up to now, Meitu's market value of Bitcoin and Ethereum is close to 1.3 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that Meitu had no institutional coverage for a long time, but after the Hong Kong subsidiary of Southern Fund launched Asia's first Bitcoin and Ethereum futures ETF in December 2022, public funds no longer seem to be excluded from the Bitcoin concept. After only three months, the Southern Hong Kong Growth Fund managed by fund manager Wang Shicong will soon be Meitu in 2023 It was first included in the fund's heavy stock in the first half of the year, and has held it ever since.

Up to now, the price of Bitcoin has remained around 63,000 US dollars, making it the world's largest digital currency, while the price of Ethereum has remained around 3,238 US dollars, with a market capitalization of 387.4 billion US dollars, making it the second largest digital currency in the world.

Editor/Somer