Hong Kong’s new digital asset-friendly policies could set the city up as the home for secondary NFT marketplaces from China as trading of ‘digital collectibles’ remains a gray area on the mainland.

Korean technology conglomerate Samsung is looking to beat its competitors in Hong Kong by offering a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) for investors to gain better exposure to the leading cryptocurrency. 

Earlier this week, the Samsung Asset Management Company announced the launch of its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the Hong Kong market. The Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF is basically a futures-based Bitcoin ETF. As per the latest Bloomberg report, the Samsung fund unit is now planning to unveil more crypto products in the Hong Kong market. Over the last few months, Hong Kong regulators have shown their affinity for crypto and are planning to make the region a new crypto hub in Asia. Samsung now sees an opportunity here and is closely monitoring Hong Kong’s rule book in case they decide to allow direct investments in crypto coins. Sam Park, Hong Kong chief executive for Samsung Asset Management told Bloomberg: “It really depends on how policy is going to be developed”. He further added that the local administration was clearly keen on developing a crypto hub. (coingape)

Hong Kong’s financial regulator is expected to create a dedicated whitelist of tokens that retail users will be allowed to trade.

Samsung investment arm’s subsidiary – Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong (SAMHK) – outlined plans to list Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF on the Hong Kong stock market starting January 13.

Samsung Asset Management announces plans to list the Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Hong Kong stock market amid the rise in interest from retail and institutional investors in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's securities watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), announced plans to propose a subset of tokens it would allow for retail investors' trading, according to a report from Reuters, as it continues to establish a new regulatory regime for the city. 

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will allow retail trading in a select group of cryptocurrencies as it attempts to introduce regularity clarity to crypto, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Hong Kong has reaffirmed its commitment to becoming a regional crypto hub following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. “As certain crypto exchanges collapsed one after another, Hong Kong became a quality standing point for digital asset corporates,” said a top government official. Joseph Chan, the undersecretary for financial services and the Treasury for the government of Hong Kong, revealed at the same event that the city is preparing to issue more licenses for digital asset trading firms. Moreover, it is planning a consultation on crypto platforms to explore the potential for retail participation in the industry. (Bitcoin.com)

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that the government has completed its crypto regulation framework, which will come into effect in June 2023.