Credit: Shutterstock photoXBT Provider , a Swedish company that has launched the world's first Bitcoin-backed instrument on a regulated exchange (Nasdaq Nordic) is planning a global expansion following its success in the Scandinavian region.
The firm manages two Bitcoin instruments called Bitcoin Tracker One and Bitcoin Tracker Euro. The latter was launched with the approval Sweden's financial supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen, on October 5, 2015, for the purpose of mirroring the return of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar per Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Tracker Euro as an exchange-traded note ( ETN ) has since become increasingly popular among investors on the Swedish regulated exchange, securing the title of the most traded ETN on Nasdaq Nordic.
With the explosive growth and increase in interest in Bitcoin ETNs, the XBT Provider team unveiled the company's plans for global expansion of their Bitcoin instruments in an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine .
Success of Bitcoin ETNs and Instruments
Bitcoin ETNs and instruments, including the Bitcoin Tracker Euro and GrayScale Investment's GBTC, have performed exceptionally well against major reserve currencies and global asset classes since mid 2015. Currently, a share of GBTC is being traded at $57.40, and since a share of GBTC guarantees investors about one tenth of a bitcoin, investors are purchasing Bitcoin using GBTC at an average price of $602.71 per coin. That is a premium almost 40 percent higher than the actual price of Bitcoin.
The XBT Provider team explains that a few key factors have played a vital role in the increase in demand for exchange-traded notes and Bitcoin instruments in the past year. Speaking about the deman, XBT Provider Marketing Manager Christoffer De Geer said:
With hopes to recover from their losses, a large number of investors in the traditional finance sector have begun to shift their focus toward secure investments in Bitcoin that can eliminate the possibility of potential hacking attacks which could result in the loss of client funds. Thus, instead of purchasing Bitcoin at highly liquid Bitcoin exchanges, traditional investors prefer to purchase Bitcoin using Bitcoin instruments like GBTC and XBT Provider's ETNs, which guarantee the ownership of Bitcoin.
But XBT Provider states that GBTC is not a real financial instrument, as it offers trades at a premium to the actual Bitcoin price. According to De Geer:
As the XBT Provider plans for global expansion, the team is looking forward to securing larger investments from institutional clients, and hoping to achieve new milestones throughout 2016.
"We do have alternative investment hedge funds and insurance companies as investors and predict larger investments from more institutions in 2016, as more asset managers start to feel comfortable with Bitcoin," a team statement said.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
