A few days ago, the SEC approved the Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF (BTCR). It is an actively managed ETF that seeks to achieve its investment objective by placing the majority of its assets in companies that have exposure to bitcoin and its supporting infrastructure.
Summary
Volt Bitcoin Revolution ETF, not a real Bitcoin ETF
This is not an ETF that allows investors to take a position on the price of BTC, but on the price of shares of companies that have BTC in their portfolio, or whose value is in some way related to that of Bitcoin.
The fund defines these companies with exposure to bitcoin as “Bitcoin Industry Revolution Companies”, i.e. companies that hold the majority of their net assets in BTC, or derive the majority of their revenue from or through bitcoin. Existing Canadian bitcoin ETFs, private funds and Grayscale are excluded from this definition.
The fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any loans, in Bitcoin Industry Revolution companies, as well as technology companies, options on those companies and ETFs with exposure to those companies.
The ETF portfolio will include about 30 companies such as Tesla, MicroStrategy, PayPal, Coinbase and Square, and will be managed by San Francisco-based Volt Equity.
Tad Park also looks at Twitter
Volt Equity initially stated that 25% of the fund’s assets would be MicroStrategy shares, but Volt founder Tad Park recently said that this percentage could be slightly lower.
Park added that they also want to include Twitter and mining companies like Marathon in the basket.
The fund will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming weeks.
The stock market value of this ETF should be a little less volatile than bitcoin, as changes in the price of BTC are only partly reflected in the value of stocks such as Tesla or PayPal.
Park stated:
“A year ago, an ETF like this wouldn’t have been possible. We hope this is a crack in the dam”.
Volt’s founder refers to the SEC’s forthcoming decisions on ETFs based on bitcoin itself, or on BTC futures. It seems increasingly likely that they will be approved, and the SEC’s decision on the Volt Bitcoin Revolution ETF points in that direction.
