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After several unsuccessful attempts to receive approval for a Bitcoin ETF, the US investment manager VanEck decided to try its hand with an exchange-traded fund that follows crypto companies.
The firm has filed a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to release a Digital Asset ETF to track the price and performance of the Global Digital Asset Equity Index.
VanEck Goes For A Crypto Companies’ ETF
Founded over six decades ago, VanEck is a New York-headquartered investment manager with an estimated AUM of about $50 billion as per 2019 data.
The company has made several attempts to initiate a US-based ETF tracking the performance of Bitcoin, but has now decided to for a different type of cryptocurrency-related exchange-traded fund.
According to a filing with the SEC, VanEck has named the new ETF Digital Assets ETF. The document reads that the new fund “seeks to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS Global Digital Assets Equity Index.”
The Digital Assets Fund plans to invest at least 80% of the total assets in securities that comprise its benchmark index, which tracks the performance of the digital assets segment.
VanEck explained that the segment is comprised of “companies that operate digital asset exchanges, payment gateways, mining operations, software services, equipment technology, or services to the digital asset industry, infrastructure,” or companies facilitating commerce with digital asset usage.
Such businesses have to generate at least 50% of their revenue from digital asset-related projects.
VanEck’s BTC ETF Attempts
The investment manager has previously sought approval to launch a Bitcoin ETF on several occasions but to no avail so far.
The latest attempt came just before the dawn of the new year when the company filed an S-1 form with the SEC to establish a Bitcoin ETF called The VanEck Bitcoin Trust.
The firm’s application said that the ETF shares would be traded on the Cboe BZX Exchange if approved.
Although the SEC hasn’t provided an answer yet, the Commission has a rich history of rejecting such applications, including several previous attempts from VanEck.
Back in 2018, the SEC rejected nine Bitcoin ETF applications in a single day, and the SEC Chair at the time, Jay Clayton, said that there’s still a lot of “work left to be done.”