Australian securities exchange approves its first spot Bitcoin ETF

Ciaran Lyons5 hours agoAustralian securities exchange approves its first spot Bitcoin ETFThe Australian Securities Exchange has approved the VanEck Bitcoin ETF to start trading on June 20.2306 Total views3 Total sharesListen to article 0:00NewsOwn this piece of crypto historyCollect this article as NFTJoin us on social networksAustralia’s largest stock exchange — the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) — has approved its first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), set to commence trading on June 20.

Investment firm VanEck will be the issuer of the spot Bitcoin ETF — the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC) — according to a VanEck press release shared with Cointelegraph. It comes only months after the firm was approved to start trading spot Bitcoin ETFs, the VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) in the United States on Jan. 11.

Chief executive officer for VanEck in the Asia-Pacific region, Arian Neiron, reiterated that the demand is growing for Bitcoin exposure in Australia, especially through a "regulated, transparent and familiar investment vehicle.”

“We recognize Bitcoin is an emerging asset class that many advisers and investors want to access,” Neiron said.

“VBTC also makes bitcoin more accessible by managing all the back-end complexity. Understanding the technical aspects of acquiring, storing and securing digital assets is no longer necessary,” he added.

Although this is the first time a spot Bitcoin ETF has been approved by the ASX, there have been two other instances when Bitcoin ETFs have launched in Australia over the past two years.

Related:Bitcoin ETFs worldwide in focus as BTC price passes $71K

Recently, the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) was approved and started trading on Australia’s second largest stock exchange, the Cboe Australia exchange.

The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF started trading when the markets opened on the Cboe Australia exchange on June 4.Source: Julian Fahrer

Monochrome said IBTC’s holdings are stored offline in a device not connected to the internet and with a crypto custody solution that meets “Australian institutional custody regulatory standards.”

In April 2022, the Global X 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) became the very first Bitcoin ETF product to debut in Australia.

Magazine:‘Bitcoin Layer 2s’ aren’t really L2s at all: Here’s why that matters# Bitcoin# Bitcoin Price# Bitcoin Analysis# Adoption# United States# Regulation# Bitcoin ETFAdd reaction