The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) recently approved its first Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, becoming the latest country to make this decision. However, the approval remains conditional at this time.

Although the approval is conditional, the regulator did not reveal any details regarding the ETFs at this time. The regulatory conditions include a variety of aspects, including document filings, fee payments, and the approval of the listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Bitcoin ETF emerges in another jurisdiction but fails to impact the market

The conditional approval came around three months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 Bitcoin ETFs after rejecting proposals for over a decade. They came after multiple companies’ efforts over many years who continuously submitted their ETF proposals only for the SEC to find new reasons to shoot them down.

But, while Bitcoin ETFs finally arrived, the US still doesn’t feature any ETH ETFs, even though multiple companies filed applications for those, as well.

Still, the fact that the US SEC gave the green light to Bitcoin ETFs resulted in a massive crypto bull run in the months that followed. However, Hong Kong’s decision to list BTC ETFs did not have the same effect.

In fact, Bitcoin is currently trading slightly over $66k apiece, while its ATH recorded on March 14 was at $73,750.

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs now available on HKSE

With the HKSE listing, the ETFs can be freely traded even from regular brokerage accounts. Traders do not have to create accounts on crypto exchanges or use third-party custodial services to access them.

This will significantly lower the entry barrier and the difficulty of accessing the ETFs for those who typically do not trade in crypto-related products.

Furthermore, China Asset Management’s Hong Kong unit received approval to provide digital asset management services. This is the same service that was developing spot Bitcoin and Ether products.

Commenting on the situation, Bosera Asset Management said that the introduction of the virtual asset spot ETFs will not only provide investors with new asset allocation opportunities but will further reinforce Hong Kong’s status as the hub for virtual assets and an international financial center.

Apart from US and Hong Kong listings, Bitcoin spot ETFs are also available on exchanges in several other jurisdictions. These include Canada, Jersey, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, as well as a few more locations.

However, given that these are small markets, the demand for Bitcoin spot ETFs remains fairly low, and so these listings did not have a major impact on the overall market at the time when they happened.