Last month Bitcoin Magazinereported that Bitcoin Tracker One, the first Bitcoin-based security available on a regulated exchange, started trading on Nasdaq Stockholm. Now, Bitcoin Tracker One, a product launched by the Swedish company XBT Provider AB, is available to investors in 179 countries via Interactive Brokers.
Bitcoin Tracker One is an “Exchange Traded Note” (ETN) designed to provide investors with convenient access to the returns of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per bitcoin, less investor fees. The average dollar exchange rate of bitcoin from the exchanges Bitfinex, Bitstamp and OKCoin provides the underlying reference price. A detailed breakdown of the value of Bitcoin Tracker One is given here.Interactive Brokers LLC (IB) is a U.S.-based online discount brokerage firm. It is the largest U.S. online brokerage firm by number of daily average revenue trades, as well as the leading foreign exchange broker. The company is a provider of fully disclosed and nondisclosed broker accounts and provides correspondent clearing services to 200 introducing brokers worldwide. The company allows account holders to trade on more than 100 market centers in 24 countries, with direct market access to stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and contracts for difference (CFDs) from a single IB Universal Account.
“We are very proud to be the second-most traded ETN on Nasdaq Nordic today, and more interest is coming every day and I believe that people are very happy to finally be able to invest in Bitcoin (i.e the ETN) through a regulated exchange,” Alexander Marsh, chief executive officer of XBT Provider, told Bitcoin Magazine. “The fact that a world-famous broker like Interactive Brokers has added the instrument to their offering is really great. Ticker code COINXBT.”
Bitcoin Tracker One could become an attractive investment option for those traditional investors who want to speculate on the exchange rate of bitcoin with traditional investment vehicles, rather than going through the hassle of buying and holding bitcoin directly. In particular, traditional financial instruments such as Bitcoin Tracker One offer easy ways to short bitcoin and profit from price drops.
“We are proud to offer the world’s first ‘Bitcoin tracker’ to be traded on a regulated exchange,” said Marsh when Bitcoin Tracker One was first announced. “By enabling this easy and secure way to invest in Bitcoin we hope to have eliminated the boundaries that earlier prevented individuals and companies from being able to actively invest in what we believe to be the future of money.”
Other similar bitcoin investment vehicles are Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), now trading on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQX exchange with the symbol GBTC, and the upcoming Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF, which will be available to investors on Nadaq with the ticker COIN.XBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden and incorporated under Swedish law, with its statutory seat in Stockholm. The XBT Provider website states that the company is backed and guaranteed by bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer and service provider KnCGroup.
Photo bifshadow / Flickr