Monochrome is confident as it offers Australia’s first ETF to hold Ether directly
Australian asset manager Monochrome Asset Management is confident of a “positive impact” after launching an Ether exchange-traded fund that directly holds assets in the country.
In a September 5 announcement, the firm said it had applied to list Monochrome Ether Exchange Traded Fund (IETH) on Cboe Australia, hoping to have it listed by the end of the month.
Source: Monochrome
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Monochrome Asset Management CEO Jeff Yew said he expects strong interest from a few key factors that will help drive the success of his Ether ETF.
Yew thinks an ETF-like subscription model that allows investors to choose to invest in fiat or other digital assets could be popular with investors.
“We're starting to see an interesting pattern with our Bitcoin ETF; people are moving their portfolios from crypto exchanges to ETFs; that's where we're seeing the biggest growth,” Yew said.
According to Monochrome's update chart on its website, its Bitcoin ETF has invested more than $7.6 million (A$11.4 million) since September 5, though that pales in comparison to US-listed Bitcoin ETFs and some competitors in Australia.
The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF has raised more than $7.4 million in investments since its launch in June. Source: Monochrome
However, Yew said Australia was “less restrictive” on crypto compared to other countries, so the ETFs market was “picking up a stop gap” to invest in a fully regulated product for the first time.
“Dozens and dozens of crypto exchanges have been serving retail investors and some professional investors for decades, so there is a lot of investment in crypto assets,” he said.
“More and more cryptos that were previously held on exchanges are now entering formal structures like ETFs.”
Overall, Yew thinks because of this, “Australia is on a very different trajectory with ETFs,” to the rest of the world, “with a bigger pie.”
Another Australian ETF, the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC), was launched on July 13 and provides exposure by investing in VanEck's Bitcoin (BTC) Trust. He outperformed with a net worth of over $26 million (A$40 million).
Global X 21, a Bitcoin ETF that invests in physical bitcoin, has more than $65 million (over $98 million Australian dollars) in assets under management.
Related: BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF Records $13.5M Inflow for Second Time
In comparison, among the top four bitcoin ETFs in the US, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) tops the charts, with over $20 billion in assets to date.
Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), has nearly $10 billion. ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ( ARKB ) and Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust ( BITB ) each have nearly $2 billion in net assets to date.
Launched in June, Monochrome Asset Management's Bitcoin ETF is the first in Australia to receive an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) for a single space crypto ETF's approval in 2021.
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