Canada’s Largest Digital Asset Manager Launches Bitcoin ETF

Nicholas Pongratz
·2 min read

3iQ Corp. announced the launch of its 3iQ CoinShares ETF. Canada’s largest digital asset manager has more than CAD 2.5 billion (USD 1.99 billion) in assets under management.

3iQ closed its initial offering of Bitcoin ETF units, which began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today. In CAD, the ETF will trade under the symbol “BTCQ,” while in USD, it will trade under the symbol “BTCQ.U.”

“Today is yet another milestone for the 3iQ team, bitcoin enthusiasts, and investors across Canada,” said Fred Pye, Chairman & CEO of 3iQ. He further stated:

“We are thrilled to be adding the 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF to our offerings and especially to partner with CoinShares.”

3iQ announced that its Bitcoin ETF’s management fee would be 1%. The digital asset manager wants to keep the ETF’s Management Expense Ratio (MER) below 1.25%. It intends to do this by initially absorbing any other expenses over 0.25%.

However, this will be lower if the total expenses fall below 1.25%. This would make 3iQ’s Bitcoin ETF have the lowest published MER of any publicly-offered Bitcoin ETF in Canada.

Bitcoin ETFs

3iQ said the investment objectives of its bitcoin ETF were twofold. The first is to provide holders with exposure to bitcoin and the daily price movements of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin. The second is naturally the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation.

Investment firms have been seeking to offer bitcoin ETFs in the United States for some time. Grayscale Investments have stated that ETFs are the end goal for the life-cycle of their cryptocurrency investment funds. In 2019, Cboe unsuccessfully applied with the SEC to list shares of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust.

Cboe is one among several investment firms filing new proposals with the SEC to offer a Bitcoin ETF. Fidelity Investments and Goldman Sachs have also made similar filings with the SEC.

SEC Commissioner Hestor Peirce believes it is past time for the regulator to allow a bitcoin ETF in the US. She says that delaying it deprives interested investors of safer, regulated exposure to cryptocurrencies, and may cause them to seek it elsewhere.