First North American Bitcoin ETF Approved by Canadian Securities Regulator

The first publicly traded bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been given the go-ahead by Canada’s financial regulator.

According to a decision document on Thursday, the receipt of approval from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) was filed under a Multilateral Instrument passport system in multiple Canadian jurisdictions.

Those territories include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

The fund seeks to replicate the performance of the price of bitcoin minus the ETF’s fees and expenses, according to a fact sheet posted online. The ETF will also not speculate on short-term changes in the price of bitcoin.

ETFs contain a basket of investments, similar to mutual funds, but trade on exchanges much in the same way stocks do.

The Toronto Stock Exchange is expected to list the fund in Canadian dollars while the portfolio and fund will be managed by Cananda-based asset manager Purpose Investments.

This story is developing and will be added to accordingly.