According to The Block, Hong Kong’s six Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs recorded a trading volume of over HKD 87.5 million (approximately USD 11.2 million) on their first trading day on Tuesday, significantly lower than the USD 4.6 billion trading volume achieved by 11 US Bitcoin spot ETFs on their first day in January.
According to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s product list, the six virtual asset spot ETFs listed today are:
– Huatai Fund (Hong Kong)’s “Huatai Bitcoin ETF” (03042.HK) and “Huatai Ethereum ETF” (03046.HK)
– CSOP Asset Management’s “CSOP Bitcoin Spot ETF” (03439.HK) and “CSOP Ethereum Spot ETF” (03179.HK)
– Bosera Fund (International) and HashKey jointly manage the “Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF” (03008.HK) and “Bosera HashKey Ethereum ETF” (03009.HK)
Data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows that the trading volume of the Huatai Bitcoin ETF ranked first, reaching HKD 37.16 million. The ETF closed with a 1.53% increase, while the trading volume of the Huatai Ethereum ETF was HKD 12.66 million. The trading volumes of CSOP’s Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs were HKD 17.89 million and HKD 4.95 million, respectively. The first-day trading volumes of Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF and Bosera HashKey Ethereum ETF were HKD 12.44 million and HKD 2.48 million, respectively.
Huatai Fund stated in an interview with The Block that the asset under management of its Bitcoin spot ETF reached USD 121.7 million by the end of the first trading day, while the asset under management of its Ethereum spot ETF was USD 20.4 million.
Justin d’Anethan, Head of Asia-Pacific Business Development at cryptocurrency market maker Keyrock, said in an interview, “While people tend to have high expectations for Bitcoin spot ETFs, often unmet, I actually think the spot ETFs in Hong Kong were successful.” d’Anethan added that although the trading volumes cannot be compared to those of Bitcoin spot ETFs launched in the US, “this happened in a completely different market dynamic,” and “Hong Kong does not offer such products to mainland Chinese investors (worth noting), yet it got some decent buy-in, which is positive.”
In addition, Hong Kong’s Ethereum spot ETF currently does not offer staking rewards. d’Anethan said, “Missing out on about a 4% annualized yield is not a small thing.” Livio Weng, CEO of HashKey Exchange, stated in an interview today that fund issuers need to have more discussions with regulatory authorities to design and introduce staking reward mechanisms, as such activities could be perceived as risky.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said on the X platform that the data performance of Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency spot ETFs is already a significant number for the Hong Kong ETF market. If the trading volume is applied to the US ETF market in the same proportion, it would be equivalent to USD 1.6 billion. Balchunas wrote, “Moreover, Eric Balchunas added that Hong Kong ETFs launched while US cryptocurrency ETFs slowed down, so the inflow of over USD 141 million will be enough to offset the outflow of funds from US ETFs.”
