Hong Kong is ‘actively looking’ at authorising crypto ETFs
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Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission looks set to allow the launch of exchange traded funds tracking cryptocurrency futures for retail investors, citing the increasing sophistication of investor safeguards.
Julia Leung, deputy chief executive and executive director of intermediaries at the SFC, said the regulator was “actively looking to set up a regime to authorise ETFs that provide mainstream virtual assets with appropriate investor guardrails”.
Leung characterised the existing professional investor requirement for crypto assets investments as the “elephant in the room”, noting that when the SFC introduced this requirement as part of its virtual assets framework four years ago, the territory’s crypto assets industry was still relatively new.
The SFC first issued rules on virtual assets in November 2018 restricting access to virtual-assets-based funds to professional investors due to the heightened risks associated with the asset class, as well as the lack of regulation around certain platforms or managers in the space.
“Given the novelty of our framework and the high volatility of crypto assets, we believed it was prudent to impose an overarching ‘professional investor’ restriction,” she said.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Ernest Chan
