VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Goes Live on Australia’s Biggest Stock Exchange

Australia’s biggest equity exchange listed its first spot-bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Thursday as demand for an easy way of investing in cryptocurrencies gathers pace worldwide.

The VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC) went live on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), which accounts for 90% of the country’s equity market. The exchange approved the product listing earlier this week.

VBTC rose 1% from its opening price to end the day at A$20.06 ($13.4) after trading 99,791 shares. The ETF is a feeder fund that provides exposure to bitcoin by investing in the company’s Bitcoin Trust (HODL), a U.S. ETF listed on Cboe.

While the start of trading comes about six months after spot bitcoin products listed in the U.S., and about seven weeks after they debuted in Hong Kong, the product is not the first to offer bitcoin to Australian investors.

Monochrome Asset Management’s Monochrome bitcoin ETF (IBTC) went live on June 4 on the Cboe Australia exchange, a smaller rival of ASX. Unlike VBTC, the fund holds bitcoin directly. Since its launch, IBTC has traded an average of around 55,000 units a day on daily average cash volumes of about A$550,000.

Together the two exchange-traded funds signal a bitcoin ETF wave arriving in Australia, according to the Australian Financial Review.