The race to list the first bitcoin ETF in Australia heats up

The Canadian company that launched the world’s first bitcoin ETF is partnering with a local crypto fund manager, Cosmos Capital.

The Canadian company that launched the world’s first bitcoin ETF is partnering with a local crypto fund manager, Cosmos Capital.

ShareThe race to list the first bitcoin ETF in Australia is hotting up with Cosmos Capital, the crypto fund manager founded by James Manning, signing a partnership with the Canadian company that launched the world’s first bitcoin ETF.Cosmos will sell an undisclosed number of new shares to Purpose Investments as part of a strategy aimed at listing some or all of its five crypto funds in Australia.

Purpose has five crypto funds – the $C1.7 billion Bitcoin ETF, the $C3.8 million Crypto Opportunities ETF, the $C408 million Ether ETF, the $C42 million Ether Yield ETF and the $C27 million Bitcoin Yield ETF.Australia is moving slowly toward the launch of a listed bitcoin ETF.

David RoweOthers in the race to launch the first bitcoin ETF include ETF Securities, VanEck, BetaShares and Monochrome Asset Management.Cosmos entered the crypto funds management space last year with a product called the Global Digital Miners Access ETF which has net assets of $1.9 million and is traded on Cboe Australia and the unlisted $5.6 million Bitcoin Wholesale Access Fund. headtopics.com

AdvertisementCosmos, which is owned by the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner Mawson Infrastructure Group, claims the partnership with Purpose will allow Cosmos to be at the forefront of digital asset investments in Australia.“We think this partnership will really allow us to leverage the expertise of Purpose and how they do their products in Canada, to allow Cosmos to do the same thing for investors here in Australia,” says Dan Annan, CEO of Cosmos.

“There’s a race to deliver a bitcoin ETF in the Australian market, and we think this partnership puts us in a really strong position to be able to deliver Australian access to the asset class.”There is a regulatory barrier to the launch of bitcoin ETFs caused by the Australian Securities Exchange.

AdvertisementIt has set volatility levels for bitcoin at 100 per cent on the downside and 200 per cent on the upside. This has important implications for the margin requirements needed for clearing and settlement.Margins need to lodged by brokers and investment banks as insurance against a trade not being completed during the two-day settlement period.

Until the ASX changes the volatility rating for bitcoin it is unlikely there will be sufficient marker support for trading in bitcoin ETFs. That has implications for Cboe Australia, which is reliant on the ASX’s clearing and settlement system.