Crypto Products for European Investors Experiencing ETF FOMO
European crypto enthusiasts are on the sidelines watching as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved eleven spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out) – it’s worth noting there are already plenty of products available in Europe.
Although the US market is bigger and has more potential to unlock more inflows into Bitcoin (hence all the excitement around a spot Bitcoin ETF being approved) — Europe already has exchange-traded products (ETPs) available for retail investors. Spot Bitcoin ETPs have existed in Europe for a long time giving investors exposure to crypto. Europe is way more progressive on the cryptocurrency product front.
Back in May 2015, Sweden’s XBT Provider AB announced the authorization of Bitcoin Tracker One (CoinShares product). This was the very first Bitcoin-based security made available on a regulated exchange. In October 2015, it launched Euro-denominated Bitcoin-based security, Bitcoin Tracker EUR, available through Nasdaq Nordic.
European ETP players in the market include 21Shares, CoinShares, WisdomTree, VanEck, Valour, Invesco, Hashdex, ETC Group. It is unlikely a Bitcoin ETF will list in Europe due to regulatory hurdles. Laurent Kssis, director at financial services firm CEC Capital, explains a Bitcoin ETF would never exist under UCITS laws in Europe, an ETF in definition is a basket of stocks and offers diversification where no one component has more than 20% of allocation.
On the first day of trading, US spot bitcoin ETFs gathered over $4 billion in trading volumes. BlackRock’s product saw its ETF gather roughly a quarter of the volumes and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) which was converted to an ETF saw almost half the volumes. Bloomberg
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