Hong Kong, known for its financial center status, recently hosted the Bitcoin Asia conference. The event attracted a significant number of participants from mainland China, despite the country's ban on commercial cryptocurrency trading. Organized by BTC Inc, which also runs the Bitcoin Conference and owns Bitcoin Magazine, the conference was attended by approximately 5,500 participants, half of whom are estimated to be from mainland China.
David Bailey, co-founder and CEO of BTC Inc, noted that interest in the conference was strong due to Hong Kong's imminent launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs and anticipation of the launch of Ethereum ETFs, as well as an increase in the development of layer 2 projects. “I think ETFs are kind of an admission that Bitcoin is here to stay,” Bailey said.
New ETFs in Hong Kong that accept in-kind subscriptions and allow purchases made with Bitcoin and ETH have been positively received by cryptocurrency investors. According to Bailey, this feature is “very important” because crypto investors can use ETF shares as collateral for loans. Harvest Global and ChinaAMC, managers of Hong Kong's crypto ETFs, confirmed they are working to promote collateralization of ETF products in the city.
*This is not investment advice.
