Hong Kong Bitcoin, Ether Crypto ETFs Raise $79 Million in Shadow of FTX Crisis

Sunil Jagtiani and John Cheng, Bloomberg News

The corporate flag for Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEX), right, and the Chinese flag, left, fly outside the Exchange Square complex in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. The Hong Kong bourse's unsolicited takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange Group Plc was greeted with a scathing rejection and the exchange suffered a further humiliation when China praised the rebuff as well. Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- A pair of Hong Kong exchange-traded funds investing in Bitcoin and Ether futures raised $79 million as the city pushes ahead with a plan to become a crypto hub even as the sector globally reels from the FTX collapse.

The CSOP Bitcoin Futures and CSOP Ether Futures ETFs, due to be listed later Friday, achieved $59 million and $20 million of initial investment respectively, according to a statement from issuer CSOP Asset Management Ltd.

Billed as Asia’s first listed Bitcoin and Ether futures ETFs, the products offer the region a regulated environment for access to contracts traded on the CME Group Inc. platform, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Hong Kong earlier this year laid out a plan to become a top Asian crypto hub offering legalized retail trading and digital-asset ETFs, seeking to restore the city’s credentials as a financial center. The territory seems to be staying the course after indicating that recent crises show why investors would embrace a rule book offering transparency, compliance and investor protection.

Crypto exchange-traded products rocketed in popularity during 2021’s boom in token prices. But demand withered as digital assets tumbled into a rout and crypto firms like Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX slid into bankruptcy.

A gauge of the top 100 tokens has tumbled more than 60% this year, compared with a less than 20% decline in global stocks over the same period.

For crypto market prices: CRYP; for top crypto news: TOP CRYPTO.