“Harvest Hong Kong” became first ever Bitcoin spot ETF applicant

Harvest Hong Kong became the first ever company in Hong Kong to file a Bitcoin spot ETF application.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of mainland China. Interestingly Hong Kong has its own currency, central bank, & ruling government. In short Hong Kong is isolated from Chinese jurisdiction but still Chinese authorities always claim that they fully control Hong Kong as an administrative region of China. Notably, crypto is fully banned in China but in Hong Kong crypto trading is fully legal under proper rules & laws, which is enough to show how these two jurisdictions are isolated from each other. 

Recently Chinese crypto blogger Colin Wu reported that Harvest Hong Kong, one of China’s largest fund companies, applied for a Bitcoin spot ETF product with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission on 26 Jan 2024.

With this development, Harvest became the first first-ever fund company to step into the Bitcoin spot ETF product business.

In the second week of this month, the American securities regulatory body SEC approved 11 Bitcoin spot ETF applications simultaneously. After the approval of Bitcoin spot ETF products in the US jurisdiction, the majority of the fund managers in other countries are trying their best to bring such products to their customers in the corresponding jurisdictions. 

Notably, some fund managers & brokers are trying to bring a path for investors to invest in the American Bitcoin spot ETF products via proper brokerage services. 

In some countries, the financial regulators warned citizens from investing in American Bitcoin ETF products and also ordered the fund managers not to issue any such product, as digital assets are still highly volatile & speculative.

Indian Central Bank governor Shaktikant Das said that approval of such risky products in developed countries doesn’t mean that the same thing can be beneficial for developing economies. Indirectly he said that the American economy can maintain the risks associated with bitcoin spot ETF products but the developing countries, which have small economic power, may face irreversible damages.

Read also: FTX sold $2.1 Billion worth of Bitcoin & Crypto in two months