This morning, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published news that banks had applied to offer cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This development was a long time coming as ASIC has been trying to regulate cryptocurrencies for over a year. With many of their applications submitted late, the first day saw just $1.3 million traded on three ETFs in total.
The “bitcoin etfs” is an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of Bitcoin. The fund has seen $1.3M in volume so far on difficult launch day.
Three crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) started trading on local platform Cboe Australia today, despite crypto prices being in free fall.
The three crypto ETFs are the first to go live in Australia, with two of them focusing on Bitcoin (BTC) and the other on Ethereum (ETH).
The three ETFs have together produced more than $1.3 million, and it is expected that they will receive roughly $1 billion in future inflows.
The Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF (CBTC) from Sydney-based crypto investing business Cosmos Asset Management “roughly matches the performance of the USD denominated ETF non-currency hedged units (Purpose ETF Units) in the Purpose Bitcoin ETF,” according to the company.
The other two ETFs were created by ETF Securities in collaboration with 21 Shares, a large Swiss exchange-traded product (ETP) provider. The Bitcoin ETF (“EBTC”) and Ethereum ETF (“EETH”) are the two ETFs. They both keep track of the worth of their assets in Australian dollars (AUD).
At the time of writing, Cboe statistics showed that 21 Shares EBTC and EETH had traded 125,271 and 142,206 shares, respectively, for a total volume of $519,874 and $416,663.
Cosmos Asset Management’s fund has had a sluggish start, with 51,572 shares exchanged for a total of $398,135, but considering that the business has eliminated fees on CBTC for two months to promote institutional interest, activity should pick up shortly.
Kanish Chugh, ETF Securities’ Head of Distribution, told Cointelegraph that although the launch came at a terrible moment due to the plummeting crypto market, it also gives investors a realistic opportunity to gain some skin in the game:
“Given how unpredictable markets are right now, predicting how Bitcoin and Ethereum will fare in the near term will be difficult.” What we’re witnessing now is that, with Bitcoin down more than 50% from its all-time high in 2021, many are using the present volatility as a chance to invest.
“We have strong expectations that EBTC and EETH will be a long-term success,” he continued.
Given the prominence of BTC and ETH, ETF Securities Chairman Graham Tuckwell stressed the need of introducing crypto ETFs in a local context in a public statement.
“These two top cryptocurrencies now have more market capitalization and trading volumes than any firm registered on the Australian stock markets, but investors have not been able to obtain access to them in a regulated way,” he added.
Despite the historic occasion, not everyone was optimistic, with Kraken’s Managing Director for Australia, Jonathon Miller, applauding this “important milestone for the maturity of the digital assets industry” while noting out that investors could already purchase Bitcoin.
“However, this isn’t always a turning point in terms of accessibility. Individual investors may already purchase Bitcoin directly, and each degree of abstraction away from the fundamental asset adds risk and expense,” says the report.
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