On Tuesday, Hashdex, a crypto asset management firm, announced the launch of its spot Bitcoin ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
This is now the 11th Bitcoin ETF to go live after the approval of the bulk of spot Bitcoin ETF applications by the US SEC in January.
The conversion
Originally, Hashdex had launched its entry back in September 2022 as a Bitcoin Futures ETF that had been trading as DEFI on the New York Stock Exchange.
However, the Brazil-based company said that the product had now been converted to a spot Bitcoin ETF to provide investors with more immediate exposure to the top cryptocurrency in the market.
But, Hashdex’s product is different from the other existing products, as it has been launched within the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
In addition, the new fund would also continue to incorporate Bitcoin futures. Hashdex said that under normal market conditions, the investment policy of the fund is to maximize physical Bitcoin holdings.
It stated that it expects about 95% of the assets of the fund to be invested in spot Bitcoin, while the remaining 5% would be invested in CME-traded Bitcoin futures contracts and cash.
The ETF
The difference between a Bitcoin Futures ETF and a spot Bitcoin ETF is that the former provides indirect bitcoin exposure through futures contracts.
As for the latter, is provides direct market price exposure because it holds actual Bitcoins. According to Hashdex, its Bitcoin ETF currently holds about 5,500 tokens, which are valued at $377.2 million.
Tidal ETF Services has sponsored the spot Bitcoin ETF and it serves as the administrator of the fund, along with BitGo. The latter functions as the custodian of the Bitcoin that underpins the ETF.
Marcelo Sampaio, the co-founder and CEO of Hashdex, said that they were pleased with the conversion of DEFI into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
He said that they were now providing an innovative product, which was in accordance with their mission to empower institutions and individuals around the globe to access this innovation.
The approval
In January, ten spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from investment firms.
These included some prominent names like ARK 21 Shares, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, VanEck, Grayscale, and Bitwise.
While a spot Bitcoin ETF application had also been submitted by Hashdex to the SEC, the final registration statement had still been under review when the other applications were approved.
This had delayed the launch plans of the company. A Hashdex spokesperson said that their product had received its 19b-4 approval with the rest of the companies.
However, the latest announcement is about the conversion of the product from a futures to a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Hence, a new benchmark index tracking went into effect on the day it received approval i.e. March 27th, 2024.