Griffon Asset Management’s Passive Digital Asset fund, a Bitcoin investment fund, gets Hanfa’s nod, Croatia’s financial regulator.
Griffon Asset Management’s Passive Digital Asset fund becomes the first Bitcoin (BTC) investment fund in Croatia after being approved by Croatia’s financial watchdog.
Hanfa also approved its partnership with the Croatian bank, Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB), as the fund’s depository.
Hanfa approves Croatia’s first-ever BTC investment fund
The Passive Digital Asset fund is the first BTC fund to receive approval from Hanfa.
The cryptocurrency fund focuses on BTC investments and offers a starting investment period of 15 days.
Alternatively, they can start running the fund once total assets already reach an amount equivalent to at least US$145,000 [AU$226,062] of their local currency.
Hanfa also approved its plan to utilize three distributed ledger technology (DLT) explorers in determining its daily asset value.
Strict guidelines on wallet-to-wallet fund transfers
Furthermore, Hanfa’s approval came with a strict guideline on the aspect of fund transfers. According to the ruling, moving funds from wallet to wallet cannot happen without the explicit approval of Griffon Asset Management and the Depository, the HPB.
As detailed in an excerpt from the Hanfa ruling:
“Access to and disposal of crypto assets requires multiple key signatures that are physically stored in separate secure locations, and the transfer of assets cannot take place without the approval of both the Company and the Depository with their keys.”
Instead of imposing performance fees from investors, the fund will charge a 2.5% management fee from investors if they exit before the end of the fund’s lock-in period of two years.
If investors exit within a year from the date of their investment, they will be charged a 3.5% management fee.
Croatia’s financial ecosystem more supportive of crypto
Croatia belongs to the countries that have been working on improving the adoption of cryptocurrencies among the public.
For example, Elipay, a mobile crypto payment application, has expanded into Croatia in 2019 after its operation was approved by Croatia’s central bank.
Roger Ver, chief executive officer of the Bitcoin.com, was the first to transact in BTC through Elipay. Elipay has enabled businesses and service providers in Croatia the ability to accept BTC and other cryptocurrency payments.
Eligma, Elipay’s parent company, is also planning on integrating debit and credit cards to its existing payment system.
In the same year, the Croatian Post began offering cryptocurrency exchange services at almost 55 post offices in the country. This project allows individuals to exchange their local currency with their choice of available cryptos through partnered posts.
The recent approval of the Bitcoin investment fund is yet another milestone that paves the way for wider adoption of crypto and blockchain in Croatia.
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