(Yicai Global) Feb. 17 -- Hong Kong will launch its first metaverse exchange-traded fund at the end of this month, adding to two in the United States and four in South Korea.

CSOP Asset Management will issue the CSOP Metaverse Concept ETF on Feb. 21, People’s Daily affiliate China Fund News reported yesterday. The fund’s unit price and minimum investment are about HKD7.80 (USD1) and HKD780 (USD100), respectively.

The first metaverse-related ETF was launched in the US on June 30, 2021. Its assets totaled nearly USD860 million as of Feb. 15, making it the world’s largest such ETF, according to its website. Its most weighted stock is US chip giant Nvidia, accounting for 8.9 percent of the fund’s portfolio.

The metaverse will be the next breakthrough innovation after the mobile internet, Citic Securities said in its research report, noting that it is still in the early concept and marketing stages.

CSOP Metaverse Concept ETF will mainly invest in companies that provide products or services that contribute to the development of the metaverse. Its planned portfolio’s top 10 holdings are tech giants Meta, Apple, Sony Group, Tencent Holdings, and Roblox, and chipmakers Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Meta has the largest weighting in the portfolio at 6.4 percent. The US tech behemoth’s net profit fell 8 percent to USD10.3 billion in the fourth quarter of last year from the same period in 2020, marking the first decline since the second quarter of 2019, per its earnings report on Feb. 2. Meta’s shares [NASDAQ: FB] have fallen over 38 percent so far this year.

The metaverse has high investment prospects in the medium and long term, as it is in line with the general trend of tech progress, China Fund News added, citing industry investors. The chip industry chain, cloud computing, virtual and augmented reality, and game-related sectors are the most promising and investment-worthy, it said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione