3iQ and CoinShares, understood to be Canada and Europe’s largest digital asset managers respectively, have teamed up to launch a directly backed bitcoin ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF is available to trade in Canadian dollars (Ticker: BTCQ CN) or US dollars (BTCQ.U CN).
Fred Pye, Chairman and CEO of 3iQ, said: “Today is yet another milestone for the 3iQ team, bitcoin enthusiasts, and investors across Canada. Backed by deep industry expertise, we are thrilled to be adding the 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF to our offerings and especially to partner with CoinShares.”
The ETF, which is authorized as an alternative fund under local regulations, tracks movement in the world’s largest cryptocurrency based on the MVIS CryptoCompare Bitcoin Benchmark Rate Index.
The ETF is fully backed by ‘physically’ settled bitcoin, offering investors direct access to the digital asset without the inconvenience, technical challenges, and associated risks of self-custody within a digital wallet.
Bitcoin holdings are stored in a segregated cold storage system by the fund’s custodian, Gemini Trust.
The ETF comes with a management fee of 1.00% with 3iQ intending to absorb expenses so that the product’s management expense ratio (MER) does not exceed 1.25%.
It is the fourth directly backed bitcoin ETF to list in Canada this year. Other funds include the $1.0 billion Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC.U CN), which comes with a management fee of 1.00%; Evolve Funds’ $100 million Bitcoin ETF (EBIT CN), which has a management fee of 0.75%, and the $100m CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCX.U CN), which costs 0.40%.
Horizons ETFs also launched a pair of bitcoin funds recently that provide long or short exposure to the cryptocurrency by way of futures contracts. The BetaPro Bitcoin ETF (HBIT CN) and BetaPro Inverse Bitcoin ETF (BITI CN) come with management fees of 1.00% and 1.45%, respectively.