Australia’s largest stock exchange – the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) – could give the green light to several spot Bitcoin ETFs as early as the end of 2024.
US and Hong Kong-based fund issuers are pushing to have their VanEck Australia and BetaShares spot Bitcoin ETF applications approved before the year is out, according to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg.
The flurry of spot Bitcoin ETF applications comes after the U.S. approved a handful of Bitcoin ETFs, with approximately $53 billion in assets under management across 11 different products.
BetaShares’ head of digital assets, Justin Arzadon, said the “significant inflows” into U.S.-based ETFs gave confidence to launch products in Australia and “demonstrates that digital assets are here to stay.”
Jeff Yew, CEO of crypto asset manager Monochrome — which was the first to lodge an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF in Australia in July 2023 — described Australia as a “very crypto-forward nation,” and expects local spot Bitcoin ETFs to attract between $3 billion and $4 billion in net inflows during their first three years.
Demand for a Bitcoin ETF is expected to be driven largely by managed fund managers looking to gain exposure to Bitcoin and from self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), with smaller but still significant retail investor demand.
