British company Jacobi Asset Management launched the first Europe-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on Bitcoin. The instrument was listed on Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker BCOIN.
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The product is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
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The Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF is positioned as \”the first digital-asset fund compliant with Article 8 SFDR thanks to its decarbonisation strategy\”.
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The product includes a capability for certifying renewable energy sources. It allows \”institutional investors to access the benefits of Bitcoin while meeting ESG goals\”.
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Fidelity Digital Assets acted as custodian of the digital assets, Flow Traders as market maker, and Jane Street and DRAW as authorised participants.
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The firm received approval from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission to launch the product as early as October 2021. According to Jacobi’s plans, the Bitcoin fund was due to debut in July 2022, but was postponed because of the Terra collapse.
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In recent months, a real ETF race has unfolded in the United States. On June 15, BlackRock sent an application to the SEC for a spot-based exchange-traded fund backed by digital gold. Following the financial giant, similar requests were submitted by Valkyrie, Fidelity Investments, WisdomTree and Invesco.
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On June 30, sources at WSJ reported that the regulator rejected the proposals because they lacked sufficient information regarding the so-called joint monitoring agreement or details of this mechanism. The latter became a key addition to BlackRock’s application.
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Subsequently, the aforementioned companies promptly sent the regulator refined proposals.
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To date, the Commission has rejected all applications for Bitcoin ETFs: an exception was made for ProShares and Valkyrie Investments, which are based on Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures on the first cryptocurrency.
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As a reminder, spot-based digital-gold funds are trading in Canada and Brazil.