An independent investment firm with more than 86 years of experience providing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) just filed for a Bitcoin ETF in the US.
Founded in 1935, Atlanta-based Invesco is an independent investment firm that currently oversees more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management and provides 233 different ETFs in the US for investors to gain exposure.
On Thursday, the investment firm filed for a Bitcoin ETF under the 40 Act, which impacts the registration and requirements of investment companies and tightens financial regulations. It was filed under the guidance of the new SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who thinks the act will provide significant investor protections.
Under terms of the filing, the ETF clarifies that it will not provide direct exposure to Bitcoin, but rather a collection of exchange-traded products (ETPs) and private investment trusts that hold Bitcoin.
“The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing all or substantially all of its assets in exchange-traded futures contracts on Bitcoin and Collateral investments (as defined below). The Fund will not invest directly in Bitcoin. The Fund may also invest to a lesser extent in exchange-traded products and private investment trusts traded over-the-counter that provide exposure to or directly hold Bitcoin (collectively, the ‘Bitcoin-Related Assets’).”
The ETF would mostly provide price exposure to Bitcoin futures, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund (GBTC), and several Canadian Bitcoin ETFs.
Invesco is the first firm to file for a Bitcoin ETF following the new provisions set out by Chairman Gensler. However, the US has yet to approve a Bitcoin ETF. Invesco’s application sits atop a stack of more than a dozen US Bitcoin ETF applications awaiting approval from the SEC.
While the US has been sitting on the sidelines, other countries have already dived into the Bitcoin ETF scene. In February, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF opened on the Toronto Stock Exchange. A month later, Brazilian digital asset manager QR Capital launched the first Bitcoin ETF in Latin America.
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