Harvest Global Investments, a major asset-management company in China, applied for a spot-bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and is in discussions with regulators regarding the city’s stablecoin sandbox, according to separate reports by Tencent News and Bloomberg.
Harvest Global did not respond to a request for comment. The SFC declined to comment.
Venture Smart Financial Holdings, a Hong Kong firm, has also said it will file a spot bitcoin ETF application, and hopes to start trading during the first quarter, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
Venture Smart Financial, along with Harvest and RD Technologies, is also among the entities reported to be in discussions with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) about its planned stablecoin sandbox, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“The sandbox arrangement is intended for fiat-reference stablecoin (FRS) issuers who have a genuine interest in and a reasonable plan on issuing FRS in Hong Kong,” an HKMA spokesperson said in an email. “The HKMA is preparing for the launch of the sandbox and will announce relevant details in due course.”
The HKMA, the central bank stakeholder in the stablecoin efforts of the region, didn’t immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
UPDATE (Jan. 29, 10:16 UTC): Adds responses from HKMA, SFC.
