Arrano Capital, which is the blockchain arm of Venture Smart Asia Limited, today announced the launch of Hong Kong’s first regulated virtual asset fund.

The fund, which tracks the price of Bitcoin, provides Professional Investors (as defined under the Securities & Futures Ordinance) access to Bitcoin through a traditional fund structure. Venture Smart Asia Limited, is licensed by the SFC to manage virtual asset funds.

The fund targets a first-year size of US$ 100 Million

“This fund comes at a pivotal time for Bitcoin. By bridging the gap between the regulated finance and virtual asset world, institutions can gain secure access to Bitcoin via a conventional fund structure”

said Arrano Chief Investment Officer Avaneesh Acquilla.

“We worked in accordance with the SFC guidelines to create a product that is the first of its kind, meets the needs of investors and complies with the highest regulatory standards.”

Acquilla launches the fund following nine years at Och-Ziff Capital Management in Asia. Prior to that he spent seven years at Goldman Sachs and UBS in London.

“Our goal is to create an institutional grade product and, to achieve this, we are exclusively operating with top tier counterparties”

said Acquilla. The fund’s legal advisers are the award-winning international law firms Simmons & Simmons and Ogier. BitGo Trust Company will be the fund’s custodian. Mainstream Fund Services and Grant Thornton have been selected to support on fund administration and audit services respectively.

The Bitcoin fund is the first of two approvals for Venture Smart Asia Limited, the second will be an actively managed fund scheduled for launch later this year.

“We decided to launch this fund to address market demand from professional investors who are increasingly focused on Bitcoin as an alternative store of value,”

said Acquilla.

“Going forward, we see enormous potential for further passive and active products.”