Australia’s first spot Bitcoin ETF to go live on Tuesday

The
Monochrome
Bitcoin
ETF
will
begin
trading
on
the
Cboe
Australia
exchange. 

The
ETF,
listed
as
IBTC,
will
have
a
management
fee
of
0.98%.
Monochrome
Asset
Management,
the
issuer,
provides
the
fund
to
allow
investors
to
access
Bitcoin
within
a
regulated
framework. 

This
framework,
overseen
by
the
Australian
Securities
&
Investments
Commission
(ASIC),
ensures
investor
protection
and
compliance
with
financial
regulations. 

The
company

stated
that
investors
have
legal
rights
to
their
Bitcoin
(BTC)
in
the
fund
and
can
request
withdrawals.
This
is
the
first
and
only
ETF
that
holds
Bitcoin
directly
in
Australia.
Cboe
will
be
the
first
exchange
in
Australia
to
offer
a
Bitcoin
ETF,
ahead
of
the
ASX,
which
also
aims
to
approve
spot
Bitcoin
ETFs
by
the
end
of
the
year.

The
spot
ETF
is
crafted
to
mirror
BTC
market
prices,
withstand
manipulation,
and
be
validated
by
market
participants.
Monochrome
collaborates
with
the
crypto
exchange
Gemini
as
its
custodian
for
Bitcoin.

A

spot
crypto
ETF
tracks
the
price
of
a
specific
crypto
and
invests
portfolio
funds
into
that
crypto.
These
funds
are
traded
on
public
exchanges
but
generally
track
a
particular
crypto.
Like
similar
funds,
crypto
ETFs
are
on
regular
stock
exchanges,
and
investors
can
keep
them
in
their
standard
brokerage
accounts.

Bitcoin
ETF
adoption

This
spot
ETF
announcement
comes
at
a
positive
time
for
the
crypto
industry,
especially
from
a
political
and
global
perspective. 

In
early
2024,
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission

gave
the
green
light
for
several
spot
Bitcoin
ETFs
to
be
listed
on
all
registered
national
exchanges
in
the
U.S.

In
mid-April,

Hong
Kong
conditionally
authorized
its
initial
spot
Bitcoin
and
Ethereum
ETFs,
setting
the
stage
for
the
city
to
take
the
lead
in
Asia
as
the
first
to
adopt
crypto
as
a
main
investment.

The
U.S.
House
of
Representatives
also

passed
the
Financial
Innovation
and
Technology
for
the
21st
Century
Act
(FIT21),
communicating
with
the
crypto
industry
that
the
United
States
is
welcome
to
crypto.