Gibraltar stock exchange welcomes landmark bitcoin product

27 Jul 2016

BitcoinETI has become the first bitcoin product added to the Gibraltar stock exchange (GSX) after approval was announced this week. It will reportedly be co-listed on the Deutsche Börse.

Issued by a Gibraltar company called iStructure, BitcoinETI is an asset-backed exchange traded instrument (ETI), allowing investors to gamble on the value of bitcoin without ever having to buy any.

Bitcoin

Tied to value

Given the perceived difficulties in dealing in actual cryptocurrency, this could open up the relatively misunderstood digital currency to the wider public, though the move is more aimed at asset managers and pension funds.

“An exchange traded instrument is a stock exchange traded security that is backed by an underlying asset or a basket of assets,” said Andreas Woelfl, CEO of Argentarius, one of the groups behind the new product.

“European sophisticated investors such as asset managers, pension funds and private bankers have now the possibility to capture the performance of Bitcoin through an EU stock exchange.”

Growing interest

GSX claims this is the first European-regulated bitcoin product ever to be released, though that’s not to say the cryptocurrency is absent from the markets.

Bitcoin is gradually making it into the mainstream. Earlier this month, Swiss-based Vontobel brought out a product to allow its customers trade bitcoin indirectly. It essentially lets people share certificates linked to the bitcoin value.

Bitcoin Tracker One (Nasdaq Stockholm exchange) and Grayscale Bitcoin (OTC market), which are similar to BitcoinETI, have seen their values rocket up in the past four months.

Gibraltar pleased

“We continue to work with the private sector and our regulator on an appropriate regulatory environment for operators in the digital currency space, and the launch of this ETI on our stock exchange demonstrates our ability to be innovative and deliver speed to market,” said Albert Isola, Gibraltar’s minister for financial services.

“I am delighted to welcome BitcoinETI to Gibraltar and congratulate GSX and Argentarius on this initiative.”

The link to Deutsche Börse is interesting amid that group’s ongoing London Stock Exchange dealings.

Earlier this year Blockchain, the company behind the popular bitcoin wallet, announced ‘Project Thunder’ to make transactions of the cryptocurrency a faster process.

Main currency image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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