Tag: ETF

Categories
Bitcoin Mining Digital Asset Mining ETFs Investing

Investors Can Now Get Exposure to Crypto Mining With Newly Launched ETF

Global investment manager VanEck has launched a Digital Assets Mining (DAM) ETF, an exchange-traded fund customised to expose investors to firms within the DAM ecosystem. The fund will not directly invest in digital assets, rather it seeks to highlight the importance of miners.

VanEck’s DAM ETF is set to put a minimum of 80 percent of total assets into crypto mining securities, with the potential to earn at least 50 percent of their revenue from DAM activity. The ETF will be tracking the MVIS digital assets mining index closely, offering a net expense ratio of 0.5 percent.

Ed Lopez, head of product management for VanEck, has a lot of time for crypto miners:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helopez/overlay/photo/

Blockchains introduce transparency, efficiency and lower costs compared to traditional centralised databases and processes, but without miners, blockchain transactions cannot be verified and audited, making their role absolutely essential.

Ed Lopez, head of product management, VanEck

The VanEck DAM ETF follows asset manager Valkyrie’s bitcoin miners’ ETF, WGMI, a fund focusing predominantly on crypto miners using renewable energy.

Crypto Mining in the Greater Industry

Since October 2020, Aussies have been able to get increased exposure to crypto through blockchain mining investments. With local crypto trading volume increasing during the pandemic, crypto mining has offered an alternative, lower-risk method of participating in the market without losing any savings.

The crypto mining process is linked to every transaction that takes place, and it is integral to ensure miners are properly compensated for their efforts. If you’d like to understand more about the mining procedure, check out our guide to bitcoin mining.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Investing Trading

Australian Crypto ETF Passes $40 Million in First Day of Trading

BetaShares’ crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) debuted this week, smashing Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) trading records on its debut. Investors’ appetite was such that more than A$40 million was poured into the crypto ETF on its first day of trading. 

$5.2 Million Traded in Five Minutes

Thousands of local investors gathered on November 4 to participate in the highly anticipated launch of Australia’s first crypto ETF. Almost A$5.2 million was traded in the first five minutes. The fund soared to a total of A$42.5 million, signalling local institutional demand for cryptocurrencies.

As Crypto News Australia reported, ASIC this week gave the green light to fund managers to launch crypto ETFs after consulting with industry experts. BetaShares CRYP (Capital Appreciation Portfolio Diversification) was the first to debut on the ASX, and it comprises a range of companies whose revenues derive mainly from crypto-companies such as retail exchanges, blockchain firms, mining companies, etcetera. 

The fund is now full with investments in several high-profile companies including:

  • Galaxy Digital (12.3% in weight of assets)
  • Marathon Digital (11.3%)
  • Coinbase Global (10.7%)
  • Silvergate Capital (10.2%)
  • Microstrategy (9.4%)

Big Moment For Australian Finance

Alex Vynokur, CEO of BetaShares, tagged the event as a “big moment for Australian finance” – yet he’s not surprised by the fund’s success, acknowledging there has been real demand for crypto-assets in Australia over the past 12 months, from family offices to high net worth individuals.

There’s real appetite from Australian investors both from individual investors as well as financial advisers to obtain the exposure to the digital assets ecosystem and do it in a regulated structure. It surpassed our expectations.

Alex Vynokur, CEO, BetaShares

Crypto ETFs have long been expected by the crypto community, and institutions are now realising the potential of crypto-assets and blockchain technology. The success of BetaShares proves the local demand for crypto-assets in Australia is growing.

More countries are now joining the BTC ETF movement. At this point, the most traded crypto fund is ProShare’s ETF, which broke records of US$1 billion worth in trading volume in just one day, marking the second-largest volume for an ETF ever registered in the US.

Categories
Institutions Investing Surveys

Report: 84% of Institutional Investors Interested in Crypto, ETF Needed

A survey of more than 1,000 institutional investors from across the US, Europe and Asia found that most believe digital assets have a place in a portfolio and were interested in crypto-based products such as ETFs. 

Respondents to the survey, conducted by Fidelity Digital Assets in early 2021, included financial advisers, high-net-worth investors, family offices, and professionals working for hedge funds, pension funds and venture capital firms.

Over half (52 percent) were already invested in digital assets (predominantly Bitcoin and Ethereum) and nearly nine in 10 said they found crypto appealing, especially in terms of its high potential upside. 

Key barriers to investment in crypto cited by investors include price volatility (54 percent), lack of fundamentals to gauge appropriate value (44 percent), and market manipulation (43 percent).

Key Findings of Institutional Investor Research

  • 70% of all investors surveyed had a neutral-to-positive perception of digital assets;
  • 84% of US and European investors, and 90% of Asian investors, said they’d be interested in institutional investment products that hold digital assets;
  • 62% of US investors expressed a neutral-to-positive view about a potential bitcoin ETF;
  • Nearly eight in 10 investors surveyed felt digital assets have a place in a portfolio; and
  • 43% of investors surveyed identified digital assets as part of the alternative asset class.

Regional Differences in Crypto Investment

The research provides insights into how digital asset adoption varies by region: 

For the second year in a row, the survey found that European investors have a more progressive view towards digital assets than Americans when comparing the responses across all categories. Even so, Asian investors, who we surveyed for the first time this past year, are by far the most accepting of digital assets, with more than 70 percent of investors surveyed currently invested in digital assets.

Jack Neureuter, Fidelity Digital Assets

Compared to previous surveys, more US investors said they’d bought digital assets through an investment product in 2021 while 30 percent of US respondents said they’d prefer to buy an investment product in future – which the report speculates could signal investors’ hopes that a crypto ETF will be approved by regulators.

While investment products were popular among European and Asian investors, they were more likely to buy digital assets directly. 

Fidelity Digital Assets’ survey results reinforce the views of finance professionals surveyed by Deloitte earlier this year – 76 percent of those respondents said they believed crypto would be a strong alternative to, or outright replace, fiat money within the next decade. 

Another report released this month found that six in 10 multinationals are already using crypto and blockchain technology, although typically for transactional purposes rather than as investment assets.