PANews reported on July 19 that according to Hong Kong media Wen Wei Po, after the Bitcoin ETF was listed in Hong Kong, Ren Junfei, founder and CEO of licensed virtual asset management company Pandu, announced that it plans to launch a pledged spot Ethereum ETF product in Hong Kong in the second half of this year. This product is not only a spot holding product, but will also add additional income. It is currently communicating with Hong Kong regulators on how to protect the interests of investors, as well as operational matters such as subscription and redemption.


Legal experts are concerned that transforming ESMA into the “European SEC” may hinder the licensing of crypto and fintech in the region. The European Commission’s proposal to expand the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is raising concerns about the centralization of the bloc’s licensing regime, despite signaling deeper institutional ambitions for its capital markets structure.On Thursday, the Commission published a package proposing to “direct supervisory competences” for key pieces of market infrastructure, including crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), trading venues and central counterparties to ESMA, Cointelegraph reported.Concerningly, the ESMA’s jurisdiction would extend to both the supervision and licensing of all European crypto and financial technology (fintech) firms, potentially leading to slower licensing regimes and hindering startup development, according to Faustine Fleuret, head of public affairs at decentralized lending protocol Morpho.Read more
