Europe’s first-place Bitcoin ETF is eyeing a 2023 debut after a year-long delay
Europe’s first Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) will launch later this year after a long delay. The Bitcoin ETF by Jacobi Asset Management — a multi-asset investment platform based in London — will debut on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange in July 2022.
However, the unprecedented market conditions resulting from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022, as well as the collapse of FTX in November, forced the asset manager to postpone listing. The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF received approval from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to launch a Bitcoin ETF in October 2021.
Asset manager notified The Financial Times has decided to launch the ETF now as it has seen a gradual shift in demand compared to 2022. The asset manager told Cointelegraph that they are still assessing the launch and will share a date soon.
The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF is a centrally cleared crypto-backed financial instrument with a Fidelity Digital Assets-backed custodian, a departure from traditional exchange-traded notes (ETNs). In Europe, all traditional crypto-backed financial instruments are structured as ETNs, not funds.
The main difference between an ETN and an ETF is that ETF shareholders own a portion of the fund’s underlying assets, while ETN investors are guaranteed debt. ETFs, unlike ETNs, cannot be leveraged or use derivatives, which could otherwise introduce risks of market manipulation.
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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 submitted applications for a new spot Bitcoin ETF in hopes of becoming the first US-approved spot BTC ETF. The SEC has approved several futures Bitcoin ETFs in 2021.
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