The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has received a request for Australia’s First Fully-Licensed Spot Bitcoin ETF, under the new regulatory guidelines.
Monochrome Asset Management, a Bitcoin-focused asset manager, and Vasco Trustees announced on Friday that they had filed an updated application for Monochrome’s Bitcoin ETF, or IBTC, which is intended to give retail investors regulated exposure.
This is the first time that a bitcoin spot ETF has been filed on the ASX, under the licensing regime with crypto provisions established nearly two years ago.
This comes a year after Monochrome’s partner Vasco was granted a financial license for the operation of crypto spot ETFs within the country.
ASIC, Australia’s securities regulator , , revised the rules for the Australian Financial Services ( AFS ) license in Oct 2021. ASIC aimed to increase investor protections and promote transparency in the crypto market.
For a spot ETF, the rules state that there must be institutional acceptance and support of the crypto underlying it. “Reputable” and “experienced” service providers should be willing to back these products.
Only two AFS licensees currently have retail crypto-asset authorizations. This includes the company behind Monochrome’s ETF. Other are listed as wholesale. This means that they have not been given the green light to offer these products to mom and pop investors.
Australian bitcoin ETFs are being tried by other Australian companies
The Cosmos Asset Management bitcoin ETF also tried to win the title of ‘s country’s first for the last year.
This ETF was created as a fund-of-funds, providing exposure to one Canada’s spot Bitcoin ETFs, managed by Purpose. Global X’s Bitcoin ETF and 21Shares’ Bitcoin ETF were the first in Australia to be listed, while Cosmos removed from its listing in November because of lackluster interest.
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF still in trading uses a structure of wholesale-retail feeder funds. A retail fund invests directly in a wholesale fund which holds bitcoin.
Blockworks was informed that the wholesale fund does not fall under the new regulations, which are aimed specifically at retail funds that deal with digital assets.
Jeff Yew said that Monochrome’s Bitcoin ETF was authorized under the “crypto-asset” licensing category. This allows the fund directly to hold bitcoin at the fund level.
The executive said he was confident of a successful outcome.
The executive explained that the delisting of Cosmos was due to a combination of unfavorable timing in the market, confusion over the fund’s license, and operational problems leading to discrepancies with bitcoin.
The current climate presents a ‘different circumstances and product structure/licensing,’ Yew said.
In the US, there has been a renewed interest in bitcoin ETFs, with institutions like BlackRock, Invesco, and WisdomTree all filing documents over the last month.