Showing posts with label china bitcoin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china bitcoin. Show all posts

Bitcoin ETFs May Soon Go Live in CHINA via Hong Kong - Bitcoin's Next Potential BIG BOOM that Most Don't Know is Coming...

 

On numerous occasions, China has banned various activities with bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies, including trading, transactions, and mining. For this reason, in mainland China, the launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on this type of financial asset is not permitted.

However, Hong Kong, while part of China, is considered a 'special administrative region' able to govern itself separately from mainland China in certain cases, one of which is the ability to regulate Hong Kong-based investment firms. When it comes to crypto, Hong Kong allows companies and residents to invest, putting them at odds with mainland China, where crypto remains banned.

Bitcoin ETF's via Hong Kong....

Financial news outlets in China are now reporting that financial giants such as Harvest Fund and Southern Fund have submitted applications to launch bitcoin ETFs through their Hong Kong subsidiaries. Harvest Fund manages more than $230 billion in total assets, while Southern Fund manages over $280 billion.

Additionally, smaller companies like 'Jiashi Fund' are attempting to use their Hong Kong subsidiary, 'Jiashi International,' to offer clients access to a Bitcoin ETF.

Regardless of size, all companies that have applied are now awaiting the decision of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, the regulatory authority that will be deciding on these applications.

Approval May Come Soon - Catching Many Off-Guard...

According to reports from China, these firms are expecting to receive approval to launch their Bitcoin ETF products and believe they could be actively promoting them as early as this quarter.

Bitcoin ETF approval in Hong Kong would be another major milestone for Bitcoin, making it easily accessible in one of the world's largest financial markets.

China has been off the radar for most crypto investors, there's been little reason to pay much attention as it's remained firm on their existing ban. While trading continued in Hong Kong, the volume coming from this small beacon of freedom isn't determining any winners and losers.   But ETF's bring the potential for large investments from Chinese corporations, also potentially attracting other Asian nations already active in the Chinese markets. 

An Influence on Mainland China...

If Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong turn out to be a success, and especially if they manage to attract international capital, companies in mainland China will likely respond by putting pressure on the government to reconsider their stance toward bitcoin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will find it difficult to defend his position if the US, European nations, and now Hong Kong companies stake their claim in the multi-billion dollar Bitcoin ETF market, while those in mainland China are forced to remain spectators.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk / Breaking Crypto News


China's Role In Crypto Mining 'Blood Coins' A Growing Problem, Says Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary...

Shark Tank Investor and Chairman of O'Shares ETF Kevin O'Leary believes China's role in mining Bitcoin is an issue that will continue to grow.  Citing the country's poor human rights record, he cites estimated if 60% of mined bitcoins coming from China and labels them 'Blood coins' (similar to African 'Blood Diamonds' mined in the middle of violent conflict).

O'Leary says China's dominance in the Bitcoin mining space must be overthrown, and easily could be...

Video courtesy of Yahoo Finance

If The US Doesn't Take The Lead On Crypto, China Will...

us and china cryptocurrency policy
Even casual viewers of cable news are familiar with commercials featuring actor William Devane – usually golfing or horseback riding – exhorting them to invest in precious metals. Lately, Devane has been joined in this pursuit by financial educator Robert Kiyosaki, creator of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series. The prevalence of these ads should not be surprising. In these volatile times, the Trump administration has spent big and printed money. (The United States is not alone in borrowing and printing its way out of this pandemic.) There is no reason to expect different behavior under Joe Biden.

It’s no wonder that alternative stores of value are flourishing. Days ago, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached yet another all-time high, just as it became clear that a Biden-Harris administration was a fait accompli. But while Bitcoin is the best-known digital currency, it is only a small part of a technological shift that could satisfy our demand for safer, cheaper, and faster ways of doing business in times of crisis and disruption. Bitcoin’s underlying technology, blockchain – a sort of shared, secure ledger of transactions between networked computers – has applications ranging from supply-chain management to securing international payments. It could be “a game changer for the global economy,” according to JPMorgan Chase. In fact, the investment giant started using its own JPM Coin in October to move investor money across its global financial platforms. Consulting firm Gartner forecasts that the business value-add from blockchain will blow past $3 trillion by the end of this new decade.

The industry powering all this change, however, is finding it harder to stay in the United States due to Washington’s dysfunction. Silicon Valley start-ups are investing billions in research and development, but there is still no clear set of rules to help them bring products to market. Congress has punted on writing a regulatory framework, and the country’s oversight agencies are – as usual – fighting over turf. Experts say that this “regulatory chaos” is suppressing American innovation while other market centers like Britain and Singapore have quickly updated their rules to lure American blockchain developers away, while Beijing scrambles to establish tech dominance.

Roslyn Layton of the American Enterprise Institute sent the Senate a blunt message this month: regulators, lacking guidance, are killing innovation. China could soon overtake us, she warned, unless the Senate holds Biden to his promises of “technocratic competence” and firm economic competition with China.

At least eight regulatory agencies are fighting over who gets to play U.S. crypto cop. Without any direction, regulators “copy-paste their bureaucracy on anything that moves,” Layton observed. The Securities and Exchange Commission is applying archaic 1930s rules that “never imagined blockchain solutions,” comparing all digital assets to securities no matter how they are designed or used.

Critics like Layton point to China’s new “digital yuan” – the country’s sole legal cryptocurrency – as a disturbing signal that the Chinese are gaining on us. The People’s Bank of China formally issued it in October and has enticed 2 million Chinese to bid on U.S. $10 million worth of the official token, says Wayne Brough of the Innovation Defense Foundation. Big American companies including Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway have embraced China’s new currency. France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Japan are developing central bank digital currencies of their own. Brough frets that through inaction, the U.S. will “blunder our way out of winning a race that we were born to win.” 

George Nethercutt, former Republican congressman from Washington State, warned in The Hill that Washington’s neglect could create “a needless trainwreck.” China and Singapore are paving the way for their own blockchain industries, he wrote, “while the U.S. is struggling with a coin shortage, stimulus check complications, and an obvious dearth of understanding on Capitol Hill about what a cryptocurrency even is.” This is “embarrassing” for the most technologically developed country in the world, he lamented.

Layton and Nethercutt point the finger at outgoing SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, who, Layton said, made “a deliberate lack of regulatory clarity” the “cornerstone of his crypto policy approach.” Clayton demonstrated “no understanding for the need for a regulatory framework” with his “notoriously guarded approach” to blockchain solutions, Nethercutt added, “significantly constraining American innovators.”

Clayton empowered the SEC by treating any digital asset as a “security,” justifying enforcement actions with a 1946 Supreme Court ruling. Clayton’s SEC lowered the boom on “utility tokens” – a core feature of business software using blockchain – according to Layton, even if they “had no resemblance to investment contracts.” This treatment extended to utility token XRP, the third-highest-valued cryptocurrency in the world, used by American developers like Ripple and R3 to power the kind of payment systems that JPMorgan has already rolled out. Just by putting this token under “a bewilderingly persistent enforcement threat,” the SEC hurt every developer on the XRP ledger. Clayton preserved his own agency’s power “but steadily eroded U.S. leadership as the best place to do business.”

It remains to be seen what Biden thinks of Clayton’s view of unlimited power over digital assets, or whether Biden’s promise of bipartisan cooperation will extend to ending the regulatory chaos.  Republicans have spent the last four years slashing regulations and reining in the administrative state and should understand that China can’t be allowed to win the crypto race. Senate Democrats on the Banking Committee like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown should remember that a president of their party, Bill Clinton, enacted the regulatory framework for e-commerce in 1997. It created millions of American businesses, reaching tens of millions of customers, and spawned a long list of occupations that had never existed before.

Coming together to vet Biden’s SEC pick on crypto policy and move the country closer to a clear set of rules would be a win-win for both parties and for the U.S. economy. Our competitors abroad can never beat us on innovation – unless we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

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Guest Contributor: Bill Zeiser