The ASIC (Australian Securities And Investments Commission) has signaled a green light for fund managers pursuing to initiate ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) of Bitcoin (BTC) which are spot-based. According to Business Insider, the country’s securities regulator has in advance shown its intentions to accept the applications filed by the fund managers to make them capable of launching their respective ETFs.
Several funds across Australia have already started the process of filing just following the welcoming gesture expressed by ASIC regarding the spot ETFs. After a few months of having a consultation with BTC as well as crypto industry experts, the corporate regulators published unique guidance concerning the field of digital assets and provided further details in a draft of regulatory requirements to be implemented on the funds moving to propose ETFs in Bitcoin. On Friday, while giving a statement, it was noted by ASIC that the agency acknowledges the public interest as well as the demand regarding ETPs as well as the other products dealing with investment in crypto-assets across the territory of Australia.
A particular necessity for the managers of funds is that they will have to allocate an expert regarding Bitcoin custody, who is to make sure that the custody, in which the crypto-assets are held, is secure and safe. The term secure and safe takes account of the store of BTC private keys, which is to be done in the cold storage being air-gapped, via utilizing wallets being possibly liable to vigorous securities activities. Residual backups comprising of seed phrases deposited in physically isolated locations are additionally required as well, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Funds should also have the least amount of up to $10M in net crypto assets in advance of the launch of an ETF of Bitcoin, and they should adhere to the other obligations like risk management and pricing. ASIC reflected on the position of Bitcoin as being included as one of the two latest approved assets by stating that the crypto assets differ to a great extent in the features, risks, as well as the operations thereof thus just two among them may adequately be held on the behalf of an investment scheme which has the status of being registered and managed appropriately. The move is taken only a week following the ProShares and Valkyrie’s launch of the initial futures ETFs of Bitcoin across the USA.