The Xetra digital stock exchange in Frankfurt will be the host of a new physically-backed Bitcoin fund launched by the securities issuer ETC Group through the HANetf platform.
The exchange-traded product (ETP), officially known as the BTCetc Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto fund and listed under the ticker symbol BTCE, is expected to go live later this month once final approval is granted by the German financial regulator.
BTCE will track the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and, according to HANetf’s documents, the exchange traded cryptocurrency (ETC) will be backed by 0.001 of BTC at launch. The physical Bitcoin will be kept in cold storage with digital asset custodian BitGo.
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HANetf have previously established a stable of innovative exchange traded products and funds including The Royal Mint Physical Gold ETC, The Medical Cannabis and Wellness UCITS ETF, and The HAN-GINS Cloud Technology UCITS ETF.
Although similar in functionality to an exchange traded fund (ETF), the new BTCE fund cannot be officially classed as such as it contains only one asset.
The security will initially be available to Germany-based investors but HANetf suggest this will soon be extended to Austria, Italy and the UK.
Bradley Duke, CEO of ETC Group, believes the fund will be attractive to institutional investors because “The crypto sector has been held back by concerns about complexity, accessibility and governance. With BTCE, we are transporting Bitcoin into the fold of mainstream, regulated financial markets.”
Duke also stated that investors would have “…the optionality of redeeming Bitcoin if they choose.”
