Hong Kong is thinking about permitting exchange-traded funds to invest directly in Ether through staking to unleash a source of passive income that has been taken out of the plans of possible US issuers.
According to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the subject, the Securities and Futures Commission has held discussions with the city’s cryptocurrency ETF companies about offering staking services via authorized platforms.
The first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Asia were launched on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 30. They are run by Harvest Global, Bosera/HashKey, and China Asset Management (ChinaAMC). However, ETFs have seen an unexciting level of interest.
If allowed, staking yields may increase that demand. The Asian financial center may also benefit from an early advantage over the US, where there is a growing likelihood that spot-Ether ETFs will receive regulatory approval, even without staking.
Fidelity and Ark have abandoned plans to stake Ether for their new ETFs. While this may ease regulatory approval, it could make the funds less attractive compared to buying Ether directly from exchanges.
Staking, which is locking coins on the Ethereum network to aid in transaction validation, is a method via which investors can generate passive revenue. Currently, ether staking yields additional coins equal to roughly 4% of the total yearly payout.
The final deadlines for the SEC to determine whether to accept or reject VanEck’s and Ark Invest’s applications for spot Ethereum ETFs are this Thursday and Friday, respectively. Among the contenders for the Ethereum ETF spots are Hashdex, Invesco, Fidelity, BlackRock, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, and Bitwise.
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