Bitcoin is the best-known digital currency
(Picture: REUTERS)UK Investors are about to be offered a new way to buy Bitcoin, the best-known crypto currency, which has been at the centre of a recent price crash for digital assets.
Jacobi Asset Management announced plans to launch Europe’s first exchange traded fund (ETF) in Bitcoin, allowing investors to buy and sell shares in the fund, which will itself hold the digital currency. The ETF will start trading under the symbol BCOIN in July on Euronext in Amsterdam, which will become the largest exchange in the world to list such a fund. Jacobi was set up in May 2021 and says it intends to “shape the future of digital asset management” offering services to “institutional, professional and sophisticated clients.”
The launch comes at a difficult time for digital assets and crypto currencies. Bitcoin itself has fallen by about 70% from its peak of around $69,000 per coin hit in November, trading at just under $16,000 this week. The wider market for similar digital assets is shrinking, with some alternative digital coins including Luna and Terra collapsing entirely.
Nonetheless, one of the key concepts of Bitcoin – that it has a limited supply of coins, which should place a backstop on its value – remains resonant with investors, especially at a time when the effects of inflation will be felt across traditional asset markets.
“The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF will enable investors to access the underlying performance of this exciting asset class via a well-established and trusted investment structure,” said Jamie Khurshid, Jacobi’s chief executive.
“Our goal is to make digital asset investments simpler and more familiar for institutional and professional investors.”
ETFs have become a popular way to track the value of underlying assets held by the funds, known as passive investing, without sourcing and securing the assets themselves or paying high fees associated with active portfolio managers. The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF will charge a 1.5% annual management fee.
Jacobi also said the fund’s custodial services will be provided by Fidelity Digital Assets and its market makers will be Flow Traders and DRW.
