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• ETF innovation and cross‑border access: Saudi, China and Hong Kong gold.  JPMorgan’s asset‑management CEO has indicated that the firm expects Chinese regulators to approve its first actively managed onshore ETFs this year, marking a structural step for foreign managers seeking to participate in China’s nascent active ETF segment. In Hong Kong, CSOP’s new Gold ETF has listed on HKEX with approximately US$720 million in initial AUM, making it the city’s largest locally issued physical gold ETF; the fund holds bullion stored in Hong Kong and allows both cash and in‑kind creation and redemption, reinforcing the city’s role as a regional bullion hub alongside the new wave of tokenised gold products. Meanwhile, State Street Investment Management has launched the Saudi Arabia Enhanced Active Equity UCITS ETF, offering European investors an active, quantitatively‑managed Saudi equity exposure with a US$100 million anchor investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund; this is PIF’s second State Street–backed ETF and its fifth anchored ETF across nine markets,
• Digital-asset frameworks and tokenised gold products move into mainstream. Hong Kong’s SFC has set out a framework for secondary trading of tokenised products on licensed virtual asset platforms, initially focused on tokenised money market funds and building on a sevenfold rise in local tokenised assets to HK$10.7 billion in 2025. In parallel, Hang Seng Investment Management and HSBC have launched Hong Kong’s first tokenised unlisted class of a physically backed gold ETF on HashKey Exchange, with units priced from US$10 and HSBC providing tokenisation, custody and trustee functions. Singapore’s OCBC, Lion Global Investors and DigiFT have introduced GOLDX, Southeast Asia’s first tokenised physical-gold fund on public blockchains, giving regulated on-chain exposure to a Singapore-domiciled gold fund that has already reached around S$669 million in AUM four months after launch. In the private sector, Chinese crypto entrepreneur Li Lin is shifting a trading system and team from his family office into Hong Kong–listed Bitfire Group to run a regulated bitcoin-denominated “Alpha BTC” strategy targeting more than 10,000 BTC (about US$760 million) in assets, underscoring the city’s ambitions in institutional digital-asset management.
• Large Asia private-equity vehicles restart capital formation at scale. EQT has closed BPEA IX at US$15.6 billion in commitments, including US$14.9 billion of fee-generating AUM, making it the largest Asia-Pacific–dedicated private equity fund raised to date and delivering a record-sized vehicle in a region where overall fundraising fell to a 12‑year low in 2025. Bain’s latest Greater China private equity report, cited by SCMP, describes an uneven recovery: exits have reached post‑2022 highs and yuan funds now dominate new capital, but US dollar fundraising remains subdued and capital is concentrating in top‑tier managers, with Chinese sovereign funds and SOEs key LPs in onshore vehicles. Against this backdrop, Hillhouse is seeking US$8 billion for its first new funds in five years—US$7 billion for an Asia-focused buyout fund and US$1–1.5 billion for growth—backed by US$1–2 billion of its own capital and outreach to Middle Eastern and other global investors. Regional private-market capital formation is also extending into growth equity and venture, with Naver, Krafton and Mirae Asset launching the Unicorn Growth Fund, a 700 billion-won (about US$476 million) India-focused tech vehicle already exceeding 500 billion won in size and targeted to scale to 1 trillion won.  
• Sovereign Wealth Fund Strategic Adjustments. Temasek’s private markets arm Azalea is developing an evergreen private equity fund, moving away from traditional closed-end fund structures to enable longer-term, more flexible capital deployment for portfolio companies. Separately, Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara has stated it will “double down” on Middle East investments, including projects in Mecca, within a US$14 billion multi‑asset programme that is tilting towards energy security and critical minerals despite ongoing regional conflict. These moves underscore the willingness of large state-owned investors to prioritize long-term structural returns over short-term market volatility, while testing new fund structures to improve alignment with portfolio company needs.