Hong Kong investment immigration recognizes Bitcoin and Ethereum as proof of assets for the first time

Odaily Planet Daily News Hong Kong accountant Xiao Yaohe said that on February 7, 2025, a client used Ethereum worth 30 million Hong Kong dollars as proof of assets and applied for investment immigration to the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Agency and was approved. In October 2024, a client who used Bitcoin as proof of assets was also approved. This is the first case in Hong Kong where an application for investment immigration using cryptocurrency as an asset was approved. The relevant clients are basically from mainland China. Xiao Yaohe said that specifically, Hong Kong investment immigration applicants need to first prove that they hold 30 million Hong Kong dollars in assets, and then invest 30 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong within half a year, mainly in stocks in the past. Whether investing in cryptocurrency ETFs or directly investing in cryptocurrency can meet the conditions is still uncertain. The applicant is first issued a visa for two years, and then needs to renew it 2-2-3 to ensure that the corresponding investment assets are still held before they can finally be approved for permanent status. Some comments also pointed out that in Singapore, cryptocurrency has always been used as proof of assets, and the difficulty is that customers cannot provide proof of initial investment funds in cryptocurrency. Xiao Yaohe said that after the first application, Invest Hong Kong said it was the first time it had received an application using cryptocurrency as proof of assets, and then approved it after a month of internal discussion. In addition to the two successful clients mentioned above, there are two more clients who use cryptocurrency as proof of assets in the process of applying. Clients' encrypted assets must be placed in cold wallets or mainstream exchanges such as Binance.