(Kitco News) – The VanEck Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (VBTC) began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Thursday, making another milestone in the journey of BTC toward mainstream adoption by investors and institutions.
“It's a normal spot Bitcoin ETF, it will represent the price of Bitcoin,” said Jamie Hannah, VanEck’s Deputy Head of Investments and Capital Markets, in an interview ahead of the launch. “What it will give investors is really an institutional-grade access to Bitcoin.”
VBTC is the first spot Bitcoin ETF to be listed on the ASX. The ETF’s launch came after the ASX approved the product listing under the ticker VBTC on Monday.
The fund’s trading volume quickly surpassed A$1.5 million, or approximately $1 million, after only a couple of hours of trading on Thursday morning.
Hannah also talked up the security and price advantages of the new Bitcoin ETF.
“No more will you need to manage your key,” he said. “If you lose it, it can't be hacked, for example. There's a lot of security measures in place, as well as insurance. It's also extraordinarily low-cost compared to any others that are listed out there at the moment.”
VBTC acts as a feeder fund for the U.S.-based VanEck Bitcoin Trust, which seeded the Australian fund with an initial investment of A$985,000.
The ASX is Australia’s largest exchange,, handling approximately 80% of the country’s equity trading. Other ETF issuers, including Australian players BetaShares Holdings Pty and DigitalX Ltd., plan to list their ETFs on the ASX.
Australia’s Cboe exchange has also listed two spot Bitcoin ETFs, the Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) and the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC).
