Bitcoin Asia Conference in Hong Kong Highlights Surging Interest in China Amid Crypto Ban

• Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong had over 5,500 attendees, half of whom came from China, where the government has been cracking down on crypto for years.
• The organizers say the recently launched crypto ETFs were the biggest attraction, with most investors interested in learning about investing in them.

Bitcoin Asia, a crypto conference held in Hong Kong on Thursday and Friday last week, attracted over 5,500 attendees, half of whom were from mainland China, where crypto has been banned for years, the event’s organizers revealed.

The conference was organized by BTC Inc., the company behind the famed Bitcoin Conference held in Miami and the owner of Bitcoin Magazine. Speakers included Benjamin Yi, the executive chairman of Nasdaq-listed Riot Platforms, Glassnode’s James Check and Kevin Zhang, the senior vice president at Foundry, the crypto mining and staking giant.

According to BTC Inc. CEO David Bailey, the attendance of such a huge crowd from mainland China proves that the country is still massively interested in crypto despite a government crackdown.

Despite being a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong has some level of autonomy that allows it to formulate its own policies. This includes its Bitcoin regulation; the city-state is among the world’s friendliest jurisdictions for crypto investors. Its crowning glory is the recent launch of Ethereum and Bitcoin spot ETFs, putting it on par with the US. However, Hong Kong’s ETFs have failed to garner the same interest and investment as their US counterparts.

As the conference proved, investors from China seem to be using Hong Kong as a conduit for investing in crypto. Ben Gagnon, the chief mining officer at Canadian miner Bitfarms, believes the city-state will continue playing this role for Chinese investors seeking to diversify from stocks and real estate.

He stated:

What I’m optimistic about is, with these rules and these regulations now in place, Hong Kong actually may find a way to be this bridge for China to bitcoin and to the greater crypto ecosystem in a way that’s more safe, more controlled or regulated.

Hong Kong’s ETFs Attract Investors from China

The ETFs were one of the key topics of discussion at the event. According to Bailey, Hong Kong will become a significant player in the crypto ETF industry, aided by the first-mover advantage as its rivals like Tokyo and Singapore drag their feet.

He told the South China Morning Post:

I think the ETFs were kind of an admission that bitcoin is here to stay. There’s no way that Hong Kong just accidentally stumbled into launching an ETF … It wasn’t random.

As Crypto News Flash has reported, the Hong Kong ETFs have had a disappointing run. However, Han Tongli, whose Harvest Global Investments was one of the issuers, is adamant that “the potential of Hong Kong’s ETFs is more than double that of the US.”