The Toronto Stock Exchange officially gets its first Ethereum-based ETF after the 3iQ Ether Fund raised more than $75M in Canadian investors’ contributions.
3iQ announced that The Ether Fund, an ETF-like tradable asset, is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as of now. 3iQ manages the fund, and it will hold around 134,000 ETH managed by Gemini Custody services. The official listing takes years of work to bring digital asset trusts to Canadian exchanges, offering ETH exposure to a new group of investors.
3iQ received approval for The Ether Fund last December 3, with a capacity to escalate $107.5M for the initial purchase of ETH. The fund will trade under the ticker QETH.U and seen more than $310,000 in volume on the first day of trading. The product can be traded like other stocks on the TSX and track the price of Ethereum.
“Our charter at 3iQ is to bring digital assets to the listed markets in a convenient and familiar fund format,” 3iQ managing director Tom Lombardi said.
“The Ether Fund (TSX: QETH.U) is the country’s first regulated and major exchange-listed ETH fund and is the next step in our company’s journey. Both The Bitcoin Fund and The Ether Fund can also be held in Canadian registered retirement accounts.”
3iQ is a Canadian digital asset investment manager with more than C$400M in assets under management. 3iQ had founded Canada’s first public Bitcoin ETF in April 2020 after many years of working with regulators that approve the fund.
3iQ is not the only investment manager that makes it easier to invest in digital assets in the current months. Grayscale, a US-based purveyor of exchange, dealt with the digital asset funds, splits its Ethereum stock worth $1.6B on December 2, and purchased an additional $58M in ETH and $266M of Bitcoin on December 10.
Grayscale amplified the regulatory status to an SEC reporting company on October 14 and then secured more than $1B in cryptocurrency investments in Q3 of 2020.
MicroStrategy has also become something of a de facto Bitcoin investment vehicle, with Michael Saylor guiding the business to a $425M BTC purchase last October. This month, MicroStrategy announced plans to sell $550M in equity to buy more bitcoin.
With the price of Bitcoin going up to over 150% and Ethereum over 300% YTD, it is a little surprising that investment managers are taking notice and doing it takes to bring digital assets to a larger audience.
Will these innovative investors end up being the ones that move digital asset prices to new heights?
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