The CEO of Hong Kong Bitcoin ETF issuer Harvest is planning to gain exposure to mainland China. Writes South China Morning Post.

Harvest Global Investments does not rule out applying to join the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program if “everything goes smoothly” and if “no problems arise in the next 2 years.”#HarvestCEO Han Tongli said this at the two-day Bitcoin Asia conference, which started in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect is a cross-border investment channel connecting the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Stock Connect launched in May 2022, part of the larger Connect scheme launched in 2014, connecting the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shanghai for the first time. Including a crypto ETF in the scheme could be a major boost to market confidence and offer a large new investor pool for nascent products.

Some question whether their inclusion will be allowed given Beijing's hostile stance towards cryptocurrencies. Hong Kong BTC and ETH futures ETFs launched in 2022 were not included in Stock Connect.

Han sees greater potential for the Hong Kong market as it is a "more neutral" region with greater appeal in Asia, and he said local crypto ETFs could grow to double the size of US products.

Khan declined to give a timeline for when he believes the milestone might be achieved. It depends on when Hong Kong can create a full-fledged virtual asset ecosystem, he said, but the city has already “planted the seed” with the launch of ETFs.