Nashville-based investment firm Valkyrie has filed a second application to create an exchange traded fund (ETF) focused on cryptocurrency.
It will not invest directly in bitcoin for the acquisition of bitcoin futures contracts (CME) traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, according to a statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
CME is currently the only regulated platform in the US to offer this type of product. If approved, the fund will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange according to the prospectus.
U.S. investors have for some time requested a bitcoin ETF linked to its actual base site; however, the SEC has yet to approve such a product due to fears of possible market manipulation.
Last week, Committee Chairman Gary Gensler said the regulator could ultimately approve an ETF aimed at bitcoin, but in accordance with strict rules, and necessarily an ETF that would provide direct access to Bitcoin. Instead, the SEC preferred ETFs tied to CME-traded bitcoin futures, such as Valkyrie’s.
Several companies, including Investo and VanEck, moved to implement such a product after Gensler’s comments, and Gabor Gurbax, VanEck’s director of Digital Asset Strategies, told decrypt that the Bitcoin Futures ETF would have an “easier implementation path.”
This is Valkyrie’s latest attempt to launch such an investment vehicle. Earlier this year, the company applied for an ETF that would target shares of “companies that directly or indirectly invest, trade or are exposed to bitcoin or work in the bitcoin ecosystem.”
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