- Guernsey Financial Services Commission will regulate Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF
- Integrated Renewable Energy Certificate solution ensures compliance with ESG standards
- This is the first ETF, but exchange-traded products (ETPs) are very common in Europe
London-based company Jacobi Asset Management has listed the flagship spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe after receiving approval in 2021. It was listed on Euronext Amsterdam according to a press release published on August 15.
The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) will regulate Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF, which will trade under the ticker “BCOIN.” The market maker, who quotes both a buy and a sell price in Bitcoin, is trading company Flow Traders. Fidelity Digital Assets will custody the fund. Wilshire Indexes provides the FT Wilshire Bitcoin Blended Price Index, the fund benchmark.
Compliance with ESG standards
Jacobi Asset Management’s integrated Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) solution ensures compliance with ESG standards while giving institutional investors exposure to Bitcoin.
Two years in the making
Jacobi obtained approval for the ETF in October 2021 and planned to list it the following year. Their plans changed due to catastrophes in the digital asset market, such as the collapses of crypto exchange FTX and the Terra ecosystem.
While this is the first ETF, exchange-traded products (ETPs) are quite common in Europe. ETP holders own a debt security, while ETF investors own part of the product’s underlying shares. Unlike an ETP, Jacobi’s ETF cannot use derivatives or be leveraged. Jacobi CEO Martin Bednall pointed out the difference in the following comment:
Unlike other products in the European market which are debt instruments, our fund owns the underlying asset directly. Jacobi is proud to be supported by Tier1 partners at the forefront of this digital asset market evolution whilst also pioneering an innovative, environmentally sound solution for European investors.
Wilshire CEO Mark Makepeace added:
The launch of the Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF is an important milestone for the digital asset industry and a transformative moment for the global financial industry. We are excited about the partnership with Jacobi and committed to helping accelerate the advancement of the entire digital asset ecosystem.
The US is falling behind
There has been a flurry of spot Bitcoin ETF applications to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in recent years, but the regulator has rejected all of them. Despite a few optimistic predictions, Europe will clearly have a spot ETF before the US.
