Fidelity Starts Offering Access to the Bitcoin ETN

Fidelity Investments, which has some $2.4 trillion assets under management, has begun offering their customers the ability to buy Bitcoin Exchange Traded Notes (ETN) offered by XBT Provider on Sweden’s Nasdaq.

“Everyone that’s investing in dollars can now get exposure to these products, whereas before, they were only available in euros or Swedish krona,” Ryan Radloff, CEO of XBT’s parent company, CoinShares Holdings Ltd., said.

OTC Markets, which offers some 10,000 securities through a network of broker dealers, like Fidelity, has now begun listing the ETN in dollars under the ticker of CXBTF.

That means Americans with an investment account can now have a fairly direct exposure to bitcoin as although ETNs are usually debt instruments, in this case the bitcoin tracker appears to operate no different than an ETF.

“Bitcoin is purchased for money received through the sale of certificates which ensures that the certificates are hedged and structured to follow the price of bitcoin. The certificates are guaranteed by Global Advisors (Jersey) Limited,” they say.

That suggests XBT buys and holds the underlying asset, with ETN purchases in effect translating to an indirect way of buying bitcoin.

They currently have $434 million worth of assets under management, with most of it at $300 million for bitcoin, while around $100 million is for eth.

The ethereum tracker is not yet listed under dollars as far as we can see, with bitcoin so paving the way for now.

According to XBT, the ETN is a security, so that could have implications for institutional investors such as pension funds which are limited to around only 10% of their investments being in non-securities or other assets.

Furthermore, the above should provide added choice to Grayscale Investments offerings which tend to be at a very high premium because they have a one year period when one can’t sell the shares.

With it also providing a reasonable alternative to ETFs, which look unlikely to receive a SEC green-light any time soon.

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