The first exchange-traded fund approved by the Swiss financial regulator FINMA trading on the spot Bitcoin market (BTC) for retail investors is expected to begin operating in November.
On Tuesday, FINMA announced the approval of the country's first spot Bitcoin ETF investing directly in BTC, but did not disclose the issuer's name.
On Thursday, BIT Asset Management said its ETF Bitcoin Fund (BBIT) is expected to begin trading on the Swiss stock exchange SIX next month. The fund directly holds bitcoin and is authorized for public offering in Switzerland only.
"Most bitcoin products listed in Europe today are exchange-traded products (ETP), which are debt instruments carrying issuer risk," BIT Asset Management said.
The statement says the ETF Bitcoin Fund is a Swiss collective investment scheme under which assets are held separately from the management company's assets and are "earmarked" for investors.
The fund falls under the Swiss category of "other funds for alternative investments," which carry particular risk. FINMA noted that other management companies had also applied to create Bitcoin ETF.
Although FINMA has allowed the creation of funds investing predominantly in a basket of cryptocurrencies since 2021, this is the first time FINMA has approved a fund investing only in bitcoin, citing its trading history and higher trading volume compared to other cryptocurrencies.
However, the document emphasized that bitcoin remains extremely volatile even when approved ETF are used.
Read also:
