AN EXCHANGE-TRADED fund (ETF) investing in Bitcoin listed on Australia’s main stock market for the first time, adding to a wave of similar launches this year in the US and Hong Kong.
The VanEck Bitcoin ETF debuted on Thursday (Jun 20) on the exchange operated by ASX with a seed investment of about A$985,000 (S$887,468). The product is a feeder fund for the US$647 million VanEck Bitcoin Trust in the United States.
US Bitcoin ETFs went live in January and took Wall Street by storm, amassing US$56 billion in assets to date. Hong Kong permitted spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ether in April, which have garnered a fraction of the interest of the US vehicles.
Sydney-based BetaShares Holdings and DigitalX, another local player, are also lining up for listings on the main Australian board. A spokesperson for the ASX has said VanEck is the only applicant with a green light so far and that engagement is ongoing with other issuers.
Crypto ETFs are already available on CBOE Australia, the country’s other bourse. The latter – Global X 21Shares Bitcoin, Global X 21Shares Ethereum and Monochrome Bitcoin – have combined assets of about US$90 million.
“The Asia-Pacific region’s potential for virtual-asset ETFs may hit more than US$3 billion in the next few years,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Rebecca Sin wrote in a note. That would be roughly evenly split between Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea once the latter eventually permits crypto funds to list there, she added.
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Bitcoin has roughly quadrupled since the start of 2023 in a comeback from a deep bear market. The rally reached a record high of US$73,798 in March but the token slipped back and momentum stalled of late. BLOOMBERG
