The SEC has approved the first 12 exchange-traded funds.
After several months waiting for a ruling from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the first 12 Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), submitted by the main U.S. asset managers, have finally been officially approved.
In other words, they are now ready to start trading, and there is a great stir in the capital markets because they will make it possible to invest in this cryptocurrency, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, without the need to buy the currency itself.
But for the moment these new Bitcoin ETFs will not be able to operate in Europe and, therefore, will not be available to the Spanish investor, because the US funds and ETFs do not meet the requirements imposed by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), supervisor of the European Union’s financial system.
“Some U.S. fund managers have launched specific products for the European market that offer a similar alternative to their U.S. products, but comply with all the requirements of EU regulations. A similar approach would be conceivable for trading crypto-product offerings in both jurisdictions,” explains Julius Weller, vice president of brokerage at Scalable Capital.
However, Spanish and European retail investors already have at their disposal the possibility of investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through exchange-traded products (ETPs), an investment vehicle that mimics or tracks the performance of a certain selection of related assets.
“These ETPs are already used by a large number of well-known ETF managers to track cryptocurrencies and allow trading through conventional European exchanges, such as Xetra (Deutsche Börse) or gettex (Munich Stock Exchange). In fact, the competition that exists in this area has led to a reduction in the product’s ongoing costs (TER) to the benefit of investors,” stresses Julius Weller.