Odaily News: Primitive Ventures founding partner Dovey Wan addressed rumors of "market decline possibly due to a Hong Kong hedge fund blowing up on IBIT options trading" in an X post, stating that being in the "Hong Kong fund" circle in Asia, she had to offer a contrary perspective.
1. Regarding Taxes: Hong Kong simply has no capital gains tax, so the so-called "tax optimization harvesting" angle is basically viewed from a US perspective and doesn't apply to us here.
2. Regarding the Rumors: We are currently conducting due diligence (DD) on one of Hong Kong's largest Bitcoin options strategy funds. Based on their performance over the past few months and our communication with them, there has been no drama whatsoever since October 11th. The Hong Kong circle is very small, and people love to gossip. If anyone really got into trouble, it would be impossible to keep it quiet. For example, when the market maker Taipingshan, linked to the Hong Kong fund 3AC, blew up, we knew about it almost the next day.
3. Regarding Fund Flows: Long before the in-kind redemption mechanism appeared, many old-school Bitcoin OGs (whales) in Asia had already one-way swapped their assets into compliant channels like IBIT (at the time, only Galaxy was the market maker that could do this, those who know, know). The main reasons for doing this were: easier custody; reduced operational and counterparty risk; more convenient flow as collateral within the traditional finance (TradFi) system; and cleaner transfer into other traditional financial assets.
4. Regarding Trading Habits: Since the second half of 2025, Bitcoin trading activity has structurally shifted significantly towards US stock trading hours (especially the early session when New York opens), and the spot selling pressure on major exchanges reflects this. In recent days, Binance has also seen huge spot selling pressure during these periods, which is actually a chain reaction from ETF redemptions.
Furthermore, why would a Bitcoin fund "blow up" just for writing options? Unless they were naked shorting or engaged in leveraged basis trades and got liquidated due to an unexpected widening of the spread between IBIT and spot. Therefore, this is likely a traditional finance (TradFi) fund with a cross-margin mechanism, not a pure "old-school Bitcoin believer" fund.
