The Australian Securities Exchange has approved its first Bitcoin ETF

Australia's largest stock exchange — the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) — has approved its first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is set to begin trading on June 20.

According to a VanEck press release shared with Cointelegraph, VanEck will be the issuer of the spot Bitcoin ETF – the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC). The VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) in the United States on January 11 comes months after the company was approved to launch a bitcoin ETF trading platform.

In the Asia-Pacific region, VanEck CEO Ariane Niron reiterated that the demand for Bitcoin exposure in Australia is growing, especially as a “regulated, transparent and recognized investment vehicle”.

“We know Bitcoin is an emerging asset class that many advisors and investors want to access,” Niron said.

“VBTC also makes Bitcoin more accessible by managing all the back-end complexities. Understanding the technical aspects of acquiring, storing and maintaining digital assets is no longer necessary,” he added.

Although this is the first time a Bitcoin ETF has been approved by the ASX, there have been two other occasions in the past two years when a Bitcoin ETF has been launched in Australia.

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Recently, the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) was approved and started trading on the Cboe Australia exchange, Australia's second largest stock exchange.

The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF began trading on June 4 when the markets opened on the Cboe Australia exchange.

Monochrom's IBTC holdings are stored offline on a device not connected to the internet and with a crypto-storage solution that meets the “Australian Institutional Safeguarding Control Standards”.

In April 2022, the Global X 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) became the first Bitcoin ETF product to launch in Australia.

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