Hong Kong Digital Bank Mox Adds Crypto ETFs, Plans Direct Crypto Investing

Mox, a virtual bank subsidiary of Standard Chartered, has started offering bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its clients shortly after launching an investment platform in Hong Kong, the company announced Wednesday.

The bank also plans to offer direct crypto investments on its platform through a partnership with a licensed exchange, it told the South China Morning Post. So far, only two exchanges, HashKey and OSL, are licensed to offer crypto trading in Hong Kong.

“Adding Crypto ETFs to the Mox Invest platform empowers our customers to gain access to emerging asset classes with confidence, allowing them to explore new investment opportunities within the evolving crypto ecosystem in a regulated and trusted environment and through a safe and simple way via the Mox app,” CEO Barbaros Uygun said in a statement.

While the crypto ETFs are already available to investors on other trading platforms, Mox charges a lower fee of 0.12% of transaction volume with a minimum of HK$30 ($3.85) for Hong Kong-listed ETFs and 0.01% with a minimum of $5 for U.S.-listed ETFs. This is the cheapest among banks in the area, Henry Lau, Mox’s head of investment, told the SCMP.

U.S.-listed spot bitcoin and ether ETFs have gained traction since their introduction earlier this year, with the bitcoin ETFs taking in over $17 billion inflows since January. The spot ether ETFs, which started up in July, have seen a net $364 million of outflows resulting from investors pulling money out of Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, according to data from Farside Investors.

All other eight funds have seen inflows, with BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust slowly approaching the $1 billion mark. It is currently at $870 million.

Their Hong Kong counterparts, however, have seen less demand. The three issuers, Bosera HashKey, ChinaAMC and Harvest Global, have not seen any inflows this month, according to Coinglass data.