British bank HSBC rolls out the Metaverse fund for wealthy Asia-Pacific banking clients

TL;D Breakdown

• HSBC, one of the world’s major banks, is preparing to launch a customized managed portfolio in the virtual world for its Asian private banking customers.
• HSBC stated that its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy Portfolio aims at investing within the metaverse ecosystem.
• The key metaverse ecosystem segments HSBC looks to invest in the metaverse ecosystem across five categories.

HSBC Holdings Plc is launching a fund for its private bank clients in Hong Kong and Singapore to invest in metaverse projects. As the UK lender continues to expand into the $800 billion virtual reality market, it has established a fund for metaverse opportunities. However, Only professional and accredited investors with a high net worth or ultra-high net worth will be able to take advantage of the strategy whereby HSBC Asset Management will oversee the liquidation.

The fund will be available to private bank clients in Hong Kong and Singapore as the team announced in a statement on Wednesday. The lender said in a statement that the launch of the funds would be the latest move to capture a slice of the burgeoning virtual reality market. The bank’s long-term vision is to capture global growth opportunities that will develop from the metaverse ecosystem’s development over the next decade, according to a press release. The “metaverse,” it was reported, “is expected to become the next iteration of the internet.”

The fund targets investments across five key metaverse ecosystem segments: Infrastructure, computing, virtualization, experience, discovery, and human interface the statement said. It will be managed by a team of HSBC’s existing private bank discretionary portfolio managers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Noel Quinn, the Chief Executive of HSBC bank added that the strategy will enable their clients to participate in what could be one of the most transformational shifts in the internet’s evolution.

HSBC ventures into the Metaverse

The launch of HSBC’sMetaverse Discretionary Strategy Portfolio follows a number of other moves by the bank into the virtual reality space. The metaverse is a digital world that has been developed by the integration of virtual reality, augmented reality, and the internet. HSBC became the first worldwide bank to enter The Sandbox metaverse in March, purchasing a plot of land to interact with sports, e-sports, and gaming enthusiasts. According to research published this week by Citi, the metaverse economy’s market potential may be as large as $13 trillion by 2030.

The bank is expanding its presence in the cryptocurrency and blockchain environment, even as CEO Noel Quinn has previously stated that the bank has no intention of establishing a bitcoin trading desk or selling cryptocurrencies as an investment to clients.