Australian Securities and Investments Commission Approves Bitcoin ETF Listing on ASX Exchange

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has said that it has no issues with Cosmos Bitcoin linked ETF that is set to be listed on the ASX exchange. The comments from the regulatory body came in context with the denial of Cosmos Bitcoin ETF listing earlier by the National Stock Exchange as they claimed they did not have appropriate regulations to protect the investors.

Cosmos CEO James Manning had earlier expressed frustration over ASIC’s lack of clarity and said,

“ASIC has a policy – which they have not released – which says they do not want an exchange-traded product, an MIS, listed on an exchange,”

ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour on Friday told the Financial Technology committee that they have no issue with any such listing as long as the platform listing the ETF has appropriate rules to protect the investors.

“For any products to be quoted on exchange markets in Australia, the particular market needs to have in place rules that facilitate the quoting of products … Not all markets have rules in place that do that. These products can be made available to Australians through managed investment scheme regime and Australians can invest in these products in that way.”

Cosmos to Launch Bitcoin ETF on ASX Exchange

Cosmos is all set to finally list its Bitcoin ETF on ASX Exchange which surprisingly has never approved of any Bitcoin-related product listing on its platform. However, the recent hype and craze around crypto adoption have made many mainstream traditional financial institutions and trading platforms reconsider their decision.

ASX CEO Dominic Steven explained that the decision was made based on the growing market demand despite their early cautious approach. He said,

“The world of bitcoin has changed since the last run, and my gut feel is this dominated by more corporate activity and institutions.”

Bitcoin ETF: The Market Demand at an ATH

All the Bitcoin ETF applications to the US SEC were rejected up until now citing a small market, however this bull season the price rise of $49,000 has also propelled its market cap to $900 billion. The growing demand of institutions for such a product is evident from the popularity of Grayscale Bitcoin trust. While the US is still exploring the idea of Bitcoin ETFs, the likes of Canada and Australia and a few countries in Europe has already approved Bitcoin linked ETFs and ETPs.

Many expect the US regulators to allow for a Bitcoin ETF this year given the massive demand for the top cryptocurrency in recent times. S&P 500 has already announced two Bitcoin-based indices which should be an indicator for regulators to understand the growing Bitcoin demand by institutions.