The Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) has listed 3iQ's closed-end fund, five months after it was first listed in Toronto.
- GSX announced Tuesday that The Bitcoin Fund, which provides institutional investors with exposure to bitcoin through a regulated asset class, is now ready for trading.
- Essentially structured as an exchange-traded product (ETP), the underlying assets are held by exchange and custody provider Gemini.
- In a statement, 3iQ's president and CEO, Fred Pye, said the listing would open the fund to European institutional investors, including pension and sovereign wealth funds.
- Based in Canada, 3iQ spent three years in dialogue with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) before it received approval for its fund.
- The Toronto Stock Exchange listed The Bitcoin Fund in April of this year.
- GSX has shown much interest in cryptocurrencies and launched a blockchain trading subsidiary, now based in Estonia, in late 2017.
- Earlier this year, the bourse also launched its "GRID" platform, which allows clients to create and issue tokenized securities.
- Since 2018, Gibraltar's authorities have taken the usual approach of relying on nine guiding principles to regulate digital assets.
- Earlier this month, the territory updated its regulatory guidance to say crypto derivative products came with much more risk than the underlying assets themselves