Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF eyes 2023 debut after year-long delay

Europe’s first spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is set to debut later this year after a long delay. The Bitcoin ETF by Jacobi Asset Management — a London-based multi-asset investment platform — was set to debut on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange in July 2022. 

However, unprecedented market conditions caused by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022, as well as the FTX collapse in November, forced the asset manager to postpone the listing. The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF received approval from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to launch its Bitcoin ETF in October 2021.

The asset manager told the Financial Times that it has decided to launch the ETF now because it has seen a gradual shift in demand compared with 2022. The asset manager told Cointelegraph that it is still assessing the launch and will share a date soon.

The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF is a centrally cleared crypto-backed financial instrument with custody supported by Fidelity Digital Assets, a major shift from the usual exchange-traded notes (ETNs). In Europe, all crypto-backed traditional financial instruments were structured as ETNs, rather than funds.

The major difference between an ETN and an ETF is that the ETF shareholder owns a portion of the fund’s underlying assets, while ETN investors own debt security. ETFs, unlike ETNs, cannot be leveraged or use derivatives, which could otherwise lead to market manipulation risks.

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While Europe approved its first spot Bitcoin ETF in October 2021, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected all spot Bitcoin ETFs to date. However, in 2023 alone, nearly half a dozen institutional giants, including the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity, have filed fresh spot Bitcoin ETF applications in hopes of becoming the first U.S approved spot BTC ETF. The SEC had already approved a couple of futures Bitcoin ETFs in 2021.

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