VanEck, a New-York based investment management firm just filed for their upcoming Bitcoin Fund with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The investment fund manager’s interest in Bitcoin only highlights the growing interest of mainstream financial giants towards Bitcoin. Prior to VanEck’s SEC filing today, GreenPro another publicly traded company filed for a $100 million Bitcoin fund. Skybridge Capital another multi-billion dollar asset manager has invested $183 million towards its bitcoin fund.

Prior to these Bitcoin trust filings, the S&P Dow Jones Index also announced that they would be launching two crypto indices in the coming year that would trade on the S&P 500 marking the arrival of Bitcoin to the mainstream.

VanEck Joins the Growing List of Bitcoin ETFs in the US

advertisement

VanEck’s upcoming Bitcoin fund would be competing against the very popular Grayscale  Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The upcoming Bitcoin trust would be an exchange-traded fund that would issue shares to the customers that would trade on Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. The shares would be valued based on MVIS® CryptoCompare Bitcoin Benchmark Rate, which aggregates the data from top cryptocurrency exchanges. The firm in its SEC filing wrote

Shareholders who decide to buy or sell Shares of the Trust will place their trade orders through their brokers and may incur customary brokerage commissions and charges. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for the Shares. The Shares are expected to be listed for trading, subject to notice of issuance, on the Exchange under a ticker symbol to be announced prior to commencement of trading.

The new Bitcoin ETF would allow institutional investors to get better exposure to Bitcoin. VanEck already has the experience of managing a Bitcoin fund after it launched a Bitcoin ETP in Europe.

Bringing to market a physical #Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. is a top priority for @vaneck_us. We are committed to support bitcoin-focused innovation & continue to work with regulators & market participants to achieve that goal. VanEck has successfully launched a bitcoin ETP in Europe. pic.twitter.com/BrcDtc2Rlw

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) December 30, 2020

The Coronavirus outbreak this year has changed the financial dynamics of the world and made Bitcoin the emerging hedging asset of the world. What many bitcoin proponents have claimed for many years has really started to reflect during the ongoing pandemic, as more institutions have chosen Bitcoin over gold. Long-time gold proponents have even cut their exposure to gold to invest more in bitcoin proving Bitcoin as a better store of value than gold during the ongoing pandemic.

About Author

Prashant Jha

An engineering graduate, Prashant focuses on UK and Indian markets. As a crypto-journalist, his interests lie in blockchain technology adoption across emerging economies.