Australian fund management company BetaShares’ new crypto company exchange-traded fund (ETF) smashed Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) records within the first 15 minutes of listing.
The Capital Appreciation Portfolio Diversification (CRYP) fund enables investors to gain exposure to 50 pure-play-listed crypto companies from around the world, such as exchanges, mining companies and equipment firms.
Some of the top companies on CRYP include Galaxy Digital (12.0%), Marathon Digital (11.3%), Coinbase Global (10.7%), Silvergate Capital (10.2%) and MicroStrategy (9.4%).
Investors blasted through the existing ETF record of $5.8 million ($8 million Australian dollars) within minutes and soared to a total of almost $31.3 million ($42.5 million AUD) by the end of opening day, signaling massive pent up demand for crypto exposure on the ASX.
Ryan McCall, CEO of Australian crypto investment platform Zerocap, said that CRYP’s success didn’t come as a surprise, given Australia’s appetite for crypto over the past 12 months.
“We’ve had records broken in our business this year too; demand from high net worth individuals, family offices and advisers has really ramped up, and that looks set to accelerate with institutional adoption.”
He added, “A spot Bitcoin ETF in Australia isn’t far away, followed by Ethereum and potentially other cryptocurrencies.”
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has just given a provision green light for the launch of Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, provided a long list of guidelines is followed.
CRYP’s success mirrors the launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which marked the first Bitcoin (BTC) futures-based ETF in the United States. The October launch saw around $1 billion in volume on its opening day, with 24.313 million BITO shares changing hands.
However, U.S. regulators appear to be reluctant to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF (which holds actual Bitcoin rather than futures contracts), placing Australia ahead in the game.
Related: New BetaShares ETF to track Coinbase, Riot and MicroStrategy
McCall said that Bitcoin futures ETFs “are an inferior product to spot Bitcoin, with price disconnected from the underlying asset. Hopefully, the regulators here see that and we go straight to spot.”
Earlier this week, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced plans to support trading of 10 crypto assets on its app, which has 6.5 million active users.