China ‘does not want to miss out’: Community reacts to HK spot Bitcoin ETF news
The cryptocurrency community is excited about the Hong Kong government reportedly weighing the launch of a spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) amid the ongoing regulatory pushback against such products in the United States.
Hong Kong’s potential entrance into spot crypto ETFs could be a significant development in the context of the economic confrontation between the U.S. and China, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes believes.
Hayes took to X (formerly Twitter) on Nov. 6 to express excitement over competition between the two economies, emphasizing that this competition will eventually be good for Bitcoin (BTC).
“Competition is amazing. If the U.S. has its proxy asset manager, BlackRock, launching an ETF, China needs its proxy asset manager to launch one, too,” he wrote.
Competition is amazing. If the US has its proxy asset mngr, BlackRock, launching an ETF, China needs its proxy asset mngr to launch one too.
The US v China economic war is great for $BTC. pic.twitter.com/ok7xipN4M5
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 6, 2023
Cryptocurrency brand Coin Bureau was also quick to react to the potential spot crypto ETF launch in Hong Kong. According to the Coin Bureau, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might be getting some pressure amid other jurisdictions like Hong Kong jumping on the bandwagon of a spot Bitcoin ETF.
“It’s a cursory tale to the SEC that if they continue to stifle capital market innovation in the United States, other countries are going to fill the void,” Coin Bureau wrote on X.
Crypto influencer Lark Davis also stressed that the latest spot crypto ETF news from Hong Kong shows that the Chinese government doesn’t want to miss out on crypto opportunities.
“Hong Kong going to get spot Bitcoin ETFs now! Chinese money does not want miss out,” Davis stated.
Hong Kong is considering allowing retail investors to access spot ETFs linked to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, providing regulatory concerns are met, Securities and Futures Commission CEO Julia Leung said, according to a Bloomberg report on Nov. 5. The SFC did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Hong Kong’s potential move into spot Bitcoin ETFs comes as at least a dozen investment firms in the U.S. seek to launch similar products in the country despite long-running pushback from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Although both Hong Kong and the U.S. have permitted crypto ETFs linked to futures contracts, the jurisdictions are yet to approve a spot crypto ETF. Unlike a futures Bitcoin ETF, which tracks futures contracts to replicate BTC prices, a spot Bitcoin ETF directly holds BTC, allowing investors to gain exposure to the asset.
Related: Spot Bitcoin ETF hype reignited zest for blockchain games: Yat Siu
The U.S. was the first to launch futures-linked crypto ETFs in 2021, with Hong Kong following in its footsteps in late 2022 with the launch of CSOP cryptocurrency futures products. Combined with the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF, Hong Kong has about $65 million in crypto ETF assets, according to Bloomberg. The futures crypto ETFs have seen low demand in Hong Kong, with their share still being tiny compared to other global crypto funds.
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation — the biggest bank in Hong Kong — reportedly enabled its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ether (ETH)-based ETFs in June 2023.
Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali has resigned after reportedly hiking the rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds – something described by one of her tenants as “extortion”.
That was just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended, The i Paper said.
Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Ms Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, and which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the newspaper reported.
The property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the publication added.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ms Ali said that remaining in her role would be a “distraction from the ambitious work of this government”.
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.”
Laura Jackson, one of Ms Ali’s former tenants, said she and three others collectively paid £3,300 in rent.
Weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, the self-employed restaurant owner said she saw the house re-listed with a rent of around £4,000.
“It’s an absolute joke,” she said. “Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”
Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Ali’s work in government would leave a ‘lasting legacy’. Pic: PA
Ms Ali’s house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to The i Paper.
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.
The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.
Something Sir Keir’s increasingly unpopular government could have done without
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house then hiked the rent.
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: a degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said the government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
She was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000, a rent increase of more than 20%.
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Responding to her resignation, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “I said that her actions were total hypocrisy and that she should go if the accusations were shown to be true.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role. Her job was to tackle homelessness, not to increase it.”
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Previously, a spokesperson for Ms Ali said the tenants “stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
The prime minister thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” and for helping to “deliver this government’s ambitious agenda”.
Sir Keir Starmer said her work in putting in measures to repeal the Vagrancy Act would have a “significant impact”.
And he said she had been trying to encourage “more people to engage and participate in our democracy”, something that would leave a “lasting legacy”.
Politics
Rushanara Ali: Humiliating demise for Labour minister after a most egregious case of double standards
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house and then hiked the rent.
Politics Hub: Minister’s resignation as it happened
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
Rushanara Ali reportedly hiked the rent on a property she owns. Pic: PA
‘A heavy heart’ – really?
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: A degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said her government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
The now former minister was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000 – a rent increase of more than 20%.
Read more politics news:
Fact-checking Farage’s claims
Why chancellor has little to cheer
The report about the Labour MP first emerged in the i newspaper. Pic: UK Parliament
A fragile constituency for Labour?
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Aug. 1, paving the way for a Trump nominee at the US central bank.
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