Several days ago, on April 9 the Canadian asset manager 3iQ made an important announcement. According to this announcement, 3iQ launched a fund tied to Bitcoin on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
It took three years to achieve this goal due to legal aspects. Consequently, the 3iQ became the first company to release such an offering on the exchange.
At the moment, trading under the name “Bitcoin Fund” the offering has around 1.5 million Class A “QBTC.U” shares available on the stock exchange. As of press release, the price of one share was around $12.
Interestingly, the fund is using price indexes from crypto data company CryptoCompare and VanEck Europe subsidiary MV Index Solutions. Also, the asset manager 3iQ serves as the fund’s investment and portfolio manager.
It is worth mentioning that, the Bitcoin fund is under the custody of crypto exchange Gemini. As a reminder, the S&P/TSX Composite Index is a benchmark Canadian index, that represents roughly 70% of the total market capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Bitcoin fund and crypto industry
According to Gemini’s president Cameron Winklevoss, the listing of a publicly-traded Bitcoin fund is an important step forward for the industry in general.
The process was full of challenges, as it took a lot of time to persuade the Ontario Securities Commission to obtain permission. The firm originally filed its prospectus for The Bitcoin Fund in 2017.
Moreover, 3iQ regards its latest BTC-tied financial offering as a rule-based index. Also, this index seeks to provide investors and crypto enthusiasts with a solid means to track the performance of Bitcoin via a host of crypto exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, etc.
Interestingly, the Bitcoin fund is closed-end in nature. The 3iQ concluded the initial public offering of its units.
Despite this success, it will still be difficult for similar funds to get listed on stock exchanges in the foreseeable future.
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