Australia’s largest stock exchange, known as the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has given the green light for its inaugural spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to go live on June 20.
The investment firm VanEck will be responsible for issuing the spot Bitcoin ETF, named the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC), as per a press release from VanEck shared with Cointelegraph. This development follows shortly after the approval granted to the firm to debut spot Bitcoin ETFs, the VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL), in the United States on January 11.
Arian Neiron, the Chief Executive Officer for VanEck in the Asia-Pacific region, emphasized the increasing demand for Bitcoin exposure in Australia, particularly through a “regulated, transparent and familiar investment vehicle.”
“We understand that Bitcoin is a budding asset class that many financial advisers and investors wish to explore,” Neiron stated. “VBTC streamlines the process of accessing Bitcoin by handling all the technical intricacies of acquiring, storing, and securing digital assets, making it more accessible.”
While this marks the first approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF by the ASX, there have been previous instances of Bitcoin ETF launches in Australia over the past couple of years.
For instance, the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) recently received approval and began trading on Australia’s second largest stock exchange, the Cboe Australia exchange. IBTC commenced trading on June 4 when markets opened on the Cboe Australia exchange.
Monochrome specified that IBTC’s holdings are securely stored offline on a device disconnected from the internet, adhering to Australian institutional custody regulatory standards with a crypto custody solution.
In April 2022, the Global X 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) made history as the first Bitcoin ETF product to debut in Australia.
In a related context, the notion of “Bitcoin Layer 2s” has been subject to scrutiny, with experts highlighting why this distinction is crucial.