Swiss SIX Exchange Lists Actively Managed Bitcoin ETP

Swiss SIX Exchange, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, is listing a new cryptocurrency exchange-traded product, or ETP.

Dubbed the “Bitcoin Capital Active ETP,” the new trading product represents an actively managed crypto ETP, trading Bitcoin (BTC) against 14 top altcoins like Ether (ETH) and exiting to fiat without active involvement from investors.

Claimed to be the world’s first actively managed crypto ETP, the new product is now listed on SIX Exchange under index BTCA.

Discretionary ETP might be a great fit for the crypto industry

The BTCA is registered by Swiss-based crypto investment management firm FiCAS and issued by Bitcoin Capital AG. The new ETP product is issued at 100 Swiss francs, the firm said.

Mattia Rattaggi, chairman of the FiCAS Board, explained that the issue price of the BTCA was driven by the desire to accommodate and facilitate market liquidity, retail concerns and portfolio management rebalancing requirements. 

Rattaggi noted that investors now have a new option of investing money into a crypto ETP that discharges their direct involvement, comparing the BTCA to traditional discretionary portfolio management. Rattaggi added that the new product should be a good fit for the nascent crypto market:

“Time will tell how this innovation will impact the industry. Arguably, an actively managed, discretionary ETP may be better suited for the still nascent cryptocurrency markets, because it focuses on active risk management more than in a systematically-driven passive ETP.”

The list of cryptocurrencies authorized for trading is defined and driven by SIX Exchange, the Rattaggi said, “We have chosen coins that have their own blockchain, high market capitalization and a large liquidity pool.” He noted that the ETP does not include privacy coins.

What is a crypto ETP?

In traditional finance markets, an ETP is a type of security that is priced derivatively and trades based on investment tools such as a commodity, a currency, a share price, or an interest rate. Opposed to crypto exchange-traded funds, or crypto ETFs, crypto ETPs are always 100% backed by the assets they are tracking.

Swiss SIX Exchange has listed multiple crypto ETPs since listing the world’s first crypto ETP in late 2018. At the time, the stock exchange listed Amun’s Crypto Basket ETP (HODL), which tracked five major cryptos like Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC). Since January 2020, SIX Exchange has also been actively listing numerous ETPs backed by crypto asset manager 21Shares.