The ETFS 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and ETFS 21Shares Ethereum ETF will track the price of BTC and ETH in Australian dollars and trade on the Chicago-based CBOE Exchange. Both are fully backed by BTC and ETH held in cold storage by Coinbase.
Hany Rashwan, 21Shares founder, confirms that Australia is the eighth country to launch a spot bitcoin ETF, “Our experience of running the longest-standing, physically-backed bitcoin ETP was helpful, so we could share our experience from Switzerland and the rest of Europe.”
21Shares has roughly $2.5 billion in assets under management. Its products are listed on 10 regulated European and Swiss trading exchanges. The firm has already launched a handful of ETPs this year, with Aave (AAVE), Chainlink (LINK), and Uniswap (UNI) as their underlying assets, and is considering supporting the top 50 cryptocurrencies by the end of the year.
Australia’s recent Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF launch come amid the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) serial denial of spot bitcoin ETF proposals.