Australia is the latest country to launch Bitcoin ETFs on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
US investment firm VanEck became the first company to list a Bitcoin ETF on ASX after opening the market with its VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC) pool to Australian investors.
VBTC, at the time of writing, has a net asset value (NAV) of AUS $19.70, with its total net assets coming in at AUS $982,850, gaining an early lead as the largest Bitcoin ETF on ASX.
VanEck outlines the key benefits of investing in a Bitcoin ETF as it enables “simple and convenient access without the complexity of owning individually”, which is the essence of a crypto ETFs purpose.
Bitcoin ETFs have been hailed as crypto’s breakthrough into the mainstream as it is a much more secure and safe approach to investing and interacting with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The ASX officially approved for its first Bitcoin ETFs to trade on the platform last week, acting as a “feeder fund” for passive management strategy, but it wasn’t the first Australian exchange to list and approve the ETFs.
Despite ASZ holding a seismic 90% lionshare of Australia’s trading equity, it was the Cboe Australia exchange that listed the first Bitcoin ETF in the country, listing the Australian-based Monochrome Asset Management’s own Bitcoin ETF.
With Australian investors able to trade and invest in more than one exchange that offers Bitcoin ETFs, the cryptocurrency’s price is expected to take another surge as it did the weeks following the US’ approval last January.
In addition, following the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) greenlighting Bitcoin ETFs, – with ETH ETFs expected to be approved soon – a host of other countries followed suit.
Hong Kong recently enabled asset companies to launch their Bitcoin ETFs on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, as well as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) clearing trading of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ether as exchange-traded notes (ETNs).