BlackRock’s iShares is bringing its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to Brazil through the introduction of a new BTC BDR (Brazilian Depositary Receipts) ETF. Trading for this product will commence on March 1, as announced by the world’s largest asset manager on February 29. In partnership with Brazilian financial market infrastructure provider B3, BlackRock Brazil president Karina Saade revealed that the BDRs of foreign ETFs are securities issued in Brazil that are supported by shares of ETFs issued abroad. This means that the Brazilian ETF is essentially the same as the BTC ETF that BlackRock launched in the United States in January. The performance of the Brazilian ETF will mirror that of the U.S. ETF, and it will come with an administrative fee of 0.25%. However, there will be a one-year exemption on the first $5 billion of assets under management (AUM). It is important to note that BDRs are subject to full taxation.
Initially, the Brazilian fund will only be accessible to investors who already have a minimum of 1 million reals ($201,000) invested in the market. Approval for retail sales is still pending for BlackRock Brazil. Currently, there are a total of 13 ETFs with cryptocurrency exposure listed on B3, which started listing them in 2021. These ETFs have a combined value of 2.5 billion reals ($503 million) and have seen a trade volume of 30 million reals ($5 million) so far this year.
BlackRock’s spot BTC ETF was one of the 10 approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10. Within just two weeks, the fund reached $2 billion in AUM, tying with Fidelity’s spot BTC fund for having the largest debut month in the history of ETFs. Currently, the BlackRock ETF has over $8 billion in AUM. According to reports from various media sources, BlackRock will consider launching a spot Ether (ETH) ETF in Brazil if it receives approval from the SEC to launch one in the United States.