Switzerland’s first retail spot Bitcoin ETF targets November launch

BIT Asset Management’s Bitcoin Fund ETF is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November, with its public offering restricted to Switzerland.

Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA’s first approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund for retail investors is expected to begin trading in November.

On Tuesday, FINMA announced it had approved the country’s first spot Bitcoin ETF that invests directly in Bitcoin, but did not disclose who the issuer was.

On Thursday, BIT Asset Management said its Bitcoin Fund ETF (BBIT) is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange next month. The fund holds Bitcoin directly and is approved for public offering in Switzerland only.

“Most bitcoin products listed in Europe today are exchange-traded products (ETPs), which are debt instruments that carry issuer risk,” said BIT Asset Management.

The Bitcoin Fund ETF is instead a Swiss collective investment scheme, where assets are held separately from those of the fund management company and are “ring-fenced” for investors, it said.

The fund falls under Switzerland’s “other funds for alternative investments” category with particular risk. FINMA noted that other fund providers have also submitted applications for Bitcoin ETFs.

While FINMA has allowed funds that invest primarily in a basket of cryptocurrencies since 2021, this is the first time that FINMA has approved a fund that only invests in Bitcoin, citing trading history and higher trading volume compared with other cryptocurrencies.

However, it stressed that Bitcoin remains highly volatile even when accessed through an approved ETF.

Related: Bitcoin ETFs bag another $528M, taking 3-day haul past $1B

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