BetaShares crypto company ETF smashes Australian records on opening day

Australian fund management company BetaShares’ new crypto company ETF smashed Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) records within the first 15 minutes of listing.

The Capital Appreciation Portfolio Diversification (CRYP) fund enables investors to gain exposure to 50 pure-play listed crypto companies from around the world such as exchanges, mining companies and equipment firms.

Some of the top companies on CRYP include Galaxy Digital (12.0%), Marathon Digital (11.3%), Coinbase Global (10.7%), Silvergate Capital (10.2%) and Microstrategy (9.4%).

Investors blasted through the existing ETF record of $5.8M (A$8M) within minutes and soared to a total of almost $31.3M (A$42.5M) by the end of opening day signalling massive pent up demand for crypto exposure on the ASX.

CEO of Australian crypto investment platform Zerocap Ryan McCall said that CRYP’s success didn’t come as a surprise, given Australian’s appetite for crypto over the past 12 months.

“We've had records broken in our business this year too; demand from high net worth individuals, family offices and advisers has really ramped up, and that looks set to accelerate with institutional adoption.”

He added: “A spot Bitcoin ETF in Australia isn't far away, followed by Ethereum and potentially other cryptocurrencies.”

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has just given a provision green light for the launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, provided a long list of guidelines is followed.

CRYP’s success mirrors the launch of ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which marked the first Bitcoin futures-based ETF in the U.S. The October launch saw around $1 billion in volume on its opening day, with 24.313 million BITO shares changing hands.

However, U.S. regulators appear to be reluctant to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF (which holds actual Bitcoin rather than futures contracts), placing Australia ahead in the game.

Read more: New BetaShares ETF to track Coinbase, Riot and MicroStrategy

McCall said that Bitcoin futures ETFs "are an inferior product to spot Bitcoin, with price disconnected from the underlying asset. Hopefully the regulators here see that and we go straight to spot”.

Earlier this week, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced plans to support trading of 10 crypto assets on its app, which has 6.5M active users.