“I think the ETF was kind of an acknowledgment that Bitcoin is here to stay,” Bailey said. “It's impossible that Hong Kong ended up launching an ETF by chance… It wasn't a coincidence.”
Cryptocurrency investors also praised a new ETF in Hong Kong that accepts physical purchases with Bitcoin and Ether. Bailey said this feature is “very important” because it allows crypto investors to use ETF shares as collateral for loans. The managers of Hong Kong crypto ETFs Harvest Global and China AMC said they are both working to further collateralize their ETF products in Hong Kong.
According to Bailey, the Hong Kong government has been very supportive, having invited Bitcoin Conference's Asia event to be held in Hong Kong. The city has already hosted several Web3-related events this year, including the WOW Summit and Web3 Festival, in an effort to attract more tourism and crypto industry players.
“I think they see Bitcoin as a huge opportunity for Hong Kong,” Bailey said.
Bitcoin Asia will be held in Nashville, Tennessee this year, much smaller than the US event previously held in Miami, Florida. Bailey said the conference will draw about 30,000 people. This is the first Bitcoin-focused conference of this scale in Asia in recent years.
Alex McShane, Bitcoin Conference programming director, said that attendance in Hong Kong was still much higher than expected. The company is currently considering options for next year's event. Mr Bailey said the company was already in talks to return to Hong Kong and was eyeing the coveted Wan Chai Convention and Exhibition Center. This year's event was held at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.
McShane said Tokyo and Singapore are also options for future events in Asia.
Ben Gagnon, chief mining officer of Canada-based BitFarms, which operated mining operations in China, said Hong Kong was seeking “China Investment” to access Bitcoin-related technology. He said he hopes it will become a “conduit for the home,” and believes it has the potential to mitigate the impact of Bitcoin-related technology. Real estate crash and stock market slump.
“What I'm optimistic about is that with these rules and regulations now in place, Hong Kong will actually be able to connect China and Bitcoin and the larger crypto community in a safer, more controlled way. “It means we might find a way to create a bridge into the monetary ecosystem that is regulated,” Gagnon said.
“I hope there will be more roads to mainland China,” he added.
In addition to the increasing financialization of Bitcoin, the rise in asset prices this year has also increased interest in Layer 2 solutions. Layer 2 on top of a blockchain is a secondary network intended for increased scalability and efficiency, such as offloading computations to less crowded secondary chains.
Chinese developers were scattered across the main floor of Bitcoin Asia, promoting startups building their own Layer 2 networks.
“There is an explosion of innovation happening in Bitcoin right now,” Bailey said. “In order to go from 200 million Bitcoiners to 2 billion Bitcoiners around the world, we need to dramatically improve the scalability of Bitcoin.”
Still, while he was optimistic about new opportunities emerging in the space, he also noted similarities with previous Bitcoin hype.
“Some of these ideas will become famous companies in 10 years. Some of them will become zero,” he said. “So it’s still the Wild West, but … it’s still the Wild West in layer 2 of Bitcoin.”
