Hong Kong may approve Ethereum staking for local spot ETFs this year, says Blockdaemon executive
Quick Take
- Blockdaemon’s VP Andrew Vranjes stated that his team is working closely with spot crypto ETF issuers in Hong Kong to develop feasible staking solutions.
- The staking feature could be approved this year “within certain constructs,” Vranjes said.
Hong Kong regulators may approve the widely anticipated staking features for spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds this year, a Blockdaemon executive said, as the region continues its drive to become a crypto hub.
In an interview with The Block in Singapore at Token2049, Blockdaemon Head of International and VP Andrew Vranjes said that his team is working closely with spot crypto ETF issuers in Hong Kong to develop feasible staking solutions in discussions with local regulators.
Vranjes said that the team has made progress, and the regulators may approve the staking feature “within certain constructs and boundaries.”
“Let's see how the market wants to evolve. There could be a model where maybe it’s accredited investors and above have this sort of option first. Maybe it goes that way, and it gets to step through over time,” Vranjes added. “We're positive because of the level of conversation.”
Vranjes explained that the Blockdaemon team is “very deep in conversations” with its clients and regulators with “multi-page documents back and forth.”
“That level of rigor is going on,” Vranjes said. “We're in that sort of fine-grained kind of motion. I think we're closer to the announcement than further away at this stage.”
Competitive edge
Despite the initial hype surrounding spot crypto ETFs in Hong Kong, their performance has been relatively underwhelming compared to their U.S. counterparts. Many industry players have said that a potential staking feature for spot ether ETFs could provide the products with a competitive advantage.
Spot crypto ETF flows in Hong Kong have paled in comparison with their U.S. counterparts. For example, the total trading volume of the three spot ether ETFs in Hong Kong was $390,000 on Monday with zero daily flows, while the nine ETFs in the U.S. recorded $129 million in trading volume on Monday and $9.5 million in net daily outflows, according to SosoValue data.
“It wouldn't surprise me if we saw an announcement around Ethereum staking for ETFs in Hong Kong before the U.S., for example. That would not surprise me,” Vranjes said.
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