Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds, managed by China Asset Management (ChinaAMC), Harvest Global and Bosera/HashKey, were widely considered to have a disappointing debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.

The six new spot bitcoin and ether ETFs — one bitcoin and one ether ETF per issuer — recorded a combined $11.2 million in trading volume on Tuesday, according to Hong Kong Stock Exchange data, led by ChinaAMC's spot bitcoin ETF. 

That figure pales in comparison to the $4.5 billion first-day volume for the spot bitcoin ETFs launched in the U.S. in January. However, the caveat is that although the Hong Kong market is smaller, the issuers already had assets under management lined up before trading began, whereas in the U.S. this was held back until the …