Everyone made a fuss about the SEC in the US approving Bitcoin ETFs a short while ago. Yes, it was kind of a big deal but it was also largely expected and hyped for many months. However, while everyone currently appears distracted with other news developments around the world the fact that this week Hong Kong approved its first Bitcoin and Ether ETFs seems to have gone under the radar.
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Quite possibly these ETFs in Hong Kong are likely to be an even bigger deal than the US ETFs. For many decades now Hong Kong has been a financial powerhouse and perhaps even more so recently as it is seen by many as a gateway into China - the rising superpower of the world which, ironically, had banned Bitcoin not so long ago (for the umpteenth time).
So does this news mean that Chinese investors are once again going to be able to pour investment funds into Bitcoin and Ethereum? Will these ETFs make it significantly easier and more accessible for them to do so? My answer is - Most definitely! Asians love to gamble and in recent years they've driven many market pumps. Check out this little chart sourced from The Block
A lot of people (myself included) would argue that a significant amount of the volume on Asian exchanges is actually Wash Trading but clearly Asia is a massive player in the Crypto space and is becoming even more relevant economically into the future. Personally I think this is a big deal and those new Hong Kong ETFs are expected to come online some time in April. Keep an eye out for them.