Chinese State-Owned Company Launches 2 Crypto Funds in Hong Kong

One of China’s leading insurers has backed the establishment of two crypto investment funds in Hong Kong. The business move comes against the backdrop of the region’s ambitions to become a hub for digital assets, and despite the negative regulatory attitude towards the market in the mainland.

A Hong Kong-based company, part of the China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC) group, has joined forces with Waterdrip Capital and established two investment funds in the special administrative region that will concentrate on the industry built around blockchain technologies and crypto assets.

CPIC is China’s third largest state-owned insurance company, Chinese crypto journalist and blogger Colin Wu, also known by the Twitter handle ‘Wu Blockchain,’ noted in a post on Monday, citing a report by the Chinese news outlet 36kr.com.

China’s third largest state-owned insurance institution Pacific Insurance Investment Management Hong Kong Branch and Waterdrop Capital launched a compliant blockchain venture capital fund and POS token income enhancement fund in Hong Kong. https://t.co/CctT9av4W3

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 3, 2023

Waterdrip is an international investment institution supporting blockchain-oriented projects and crypto startups such as Polkadot, among others. It was founded in 2017 by “the most forward-thinking Chinese blockchain pioneers,” according to its website.

The companies have launched two funds for investments in the sector — a venture capital fund called Pacific Waterdrip Digital Asset Fund I and Pacific Waterdrip Digital Asset Fund II, also referred to as ‘POS Token Income Enhancement Fund.’

The first one will invest in the early stages of new projects focused on the development of blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance applications, Web3, metaverse, and non-fungible token (NFT) apps, while the second will mainly hold digital assets based on the proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism.

The main goal behind the initiative is to provide investors with more diversified and innovative investment options. The target group of the funds will include institutional investors such as corporations and family offices as well as high-net-worth individual investors.

The central government in China has been cracking down on crypto-related activities in the People’s Republic, but there have been indications that Hong Kong’s plan to become a major hub for digital assets has the backing of Beijing. A recent report by Bloomberg revealed that China’s state-owned banks have been opening their doors to crypto companies coming to the region.

Do you expect more Chinese state-owned companies to get involved in Hong Kong’s growing crypto market? Tell us in the comments section below.