Fidelity Investments, One of the World's Largest Asset Manager, Has Filed for a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund

News • 2021/04/04 • by

According to a recent report with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, wealth management giant Fidelity is considering launching a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF is the newest participant in an extremely dynamic battle to deliver a bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States. According to the filing, the fund is sponsored by FD Funds Management LLC, with Fidelity Service Company, Inc. acting as administrator. According to the paper, FD Funds Management LLC is headquartered at the same address as Fidelity's headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.

Major Signals

Custodian would be Fidelity Digital Assets, the wealth manager's crypto-focused subsidiary.

Market observers have hypothesized that recent ETF innovations in Canada could prompt regulators in the United States to rule on a bitcoin exchange-traded product.

Based on the filing, the ETF, if authorised, would also use Fidelity's in-house bitcoin price index. "The Trust's investment goal is to watch the success of bitcoin, as calculated by the Fidelity Bitcoin Index PR (the "Index"), balanced for the Trust's costs and other liabilities," the filing states.

The Trust allows investors to compete in the cryptocurrency business from a conventional trading account, eliminating the possible obstacles to entry and uncertainties associated with actively owning or selling bitcoin, purchasing it through a bitcoin spot market, or mining it."

The fund's name is a play on the Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I, which Fidelity will start in August 2020. As Bloomberg noted at the time, the actively managed fund marked Fidelity's first foray into offering eligible investors a bitcoin-only fund option.

"The environment for digital assets has expanded dramatically in recent years, providing a more robust environment for buyers and accelerating institutional demand. A the number of investors seeking access to bitcoin has emphasized the importance of a more diverse variety of goods that include exposure to digital assets "According to a Fidelity spokesperson,

Fidelity's initiative joins WisdomTree Investments, VanEck Associates Corp., NYDIG Asset Management, First Advisors/SkyBridge, and Valkyrie Digital Assets as the sixth of its sort in the United States.