The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission first introduces Ethereum Spot ETF staking services, marking a historic breakthrough for the Web3 industry｜Gate Research Institute

Summary

• Policy Background: On April 7, 2025, during the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued the "Circular on the Provision of Pledge Services by Virtual Asset Trading Platforms". After the issuance of the circular, ChinaAMC Fund and Bosera Fund, which have already issued Ethereum spot ETFs, responded quickly. Compared to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission approved the staking service of the Ethereum spot ETF earlier, which is a milestone event for Hong Kong, which aims to become a Web3 hub in Asia. This not only reflects the in-depth research of the Hong Kong cryptocurrency regulator on the on-chain revenue distribution mechanism, but also demonstrates the Hong Kong government's aggressive and open-minded policies for the crypto industry.

• How about ETH staking yield: In May 2025, the APY of ETH staking is 3.07%, and from the perspective of wealth management products, ETH staking is not a high-yield product, and it is not competitive compared to SOL staking yield. However, Ethereum ETF staking has improved investors' returns without increasing the threshold for investors' operations, which is a milestone financial service progress in the process of Web2 moving towards Web3. Traditional financial investors can treat the staking service as an additional dividend of around 3% on top of the token asset.

• Ethereum ETF staking is a long-tail tail: After the launch of the staking service in April 2025, there has been no significant increase in subscriptions for Ethereum ETF funds in Hong Kong. Heading into May, the ETH token price rose from $1,500 to $2,500, and the Hong Kong Ethereum ETF fund saw net inflows of $610,000 and $0.7 million on May 12 and May 13, respectively. Overall, Hong Kong's approval of virtual asset ETFs to provide staking services is a long-tail positive policy, but it has not significantly increased the scale of management in the short term. This is mainly due to the lack of liquidity in the Hong Kong market, the difficulty of registering international investors, and the limited understanding of the concept of "staking" by traditional investors.

• Hong Kong's Ethereum Ecosystem Prospect and RWA Development: As Hong Kong's financial center in Asia, the Hong Kong Economic Authority officially launched the Ensemble Sandbox project team in August 2024 to promote tokenization applications. The policy support and the rapid implementation of the project demonstrate that Hong Kong attaches great importance to the RWA sector. Ethereum is currently the public chain with the highest total RWA assets, and the landing of Hong Kong's pledge service may have a greater ambition, which may represent that Hong Kong will participate more in the governance and construction of the Ethereum network to develop RWA, a track that the policy focuses on.

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