Euro Crypto Goes Dutch: First Spot Bitcoin ETF Now Eyeing Glamorous Entrance in 2023
After a runway full of delays and unplanned detours, Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF is finally prepping for its much-anticipated catwalk debut—but we’ll all have to wait a little longer for the final reveal. London-based powerhouse Jacobi Asset Management had initially planned to dazzle the scene on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange in July 2022, but much like a diva caught in a fashion faux pas, its grand entrance was postponed due to unfavourable market conditions in the cryptocurrency world.
Why, you might ask? Well, our fashion-forward ETF was set to strut its stuff last year but stumbled on some unforeseen drama (cough, Terra ecosystem and FTX collapse, cough). This wrinkle in the train meant the Grande Dame of Bitcoin ETFs had to retreat to the green room a little longer than expected, despite the enthusiastic thumbs up from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, who had given the ETF its blessing back in October 2021.
But why now, we hear you speculate, one eyebrow raised elegantly skyward? The answer lies in the subtle yet undeniable shift in the style of demand. This sartorially conscious ETF senses the upcoming season might be just right to bring a fresh look to the market. The date of launch is still in the whisper stages, but murmurs suggest it will be sooner rather than later.
This fashion-forward Bitcoin ETF is no ordinary model. She’s uniquely draped in a centrally cleared crypto-backed financial instrument, a rare find, with trusty Fidelity Digital Assets holding the purse strings. It’s a refreshing wind of change in a sea of exchange-traded notes (ETNs), often the preferred garb in European crypto-backed fin-fashion.
Narrating the scoreboard in the fashion wars, we could say that an ETF differs in its ownership of a share of the fund’s underlying assets, setting her apart from her ETN cousins who only hold debt security, and saving herself from the risk of market manipulation that derivatives often bring along.
The final twist in this tale? While Europe got its own spot Bitcoin ETF approved in 2021, Uncle Sam’s SEC is playing hard-to-get. Half a dozen institutional giants, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and others, are falling in line with hopeful spot Bitcoin ETF applications, eager to snag the coveted title of America’s ‘first’. Will this season bring them luck? Only time will tell.