Banco Santander is finalizing the details to launch its first Bitcoin ETF.
After BITO’s approval by the SEC in the US, BTC’s Exchange Traded Funds could now also conquer Europe.
Summary
Banco Santander pioneers Bitcoin ETFs
Spanish Bank Santander is preparing to launch a #Bitcoin ETF! 🙌
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) November 8, 2021
“Spanish Bank Santander is preparing to launch a Bitcoin ETF!”
According to reports, among Spanish banks, the only one to launch cryptocurrency investment products seems to be Banco Santander.
Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander, stated thus:
“We are a leader in crypto. We issue the first bond in blockchain. We have a strong team working on it (…). Our clients want to buy bitcoin, but we have been quite slow to adopt it due to regulatory issues. Now we are about to offer cryptocurrency ETFs”.
No further details about the new product are available at the moment. It is only certain that Banco Santander wants to be the pioneer in offering Bitcoin ETFs, at least in Spain itself.
In fact, no such product has been registered on Spanish territory, according to data from the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
Bitcoin ETFs after the ok in the US
Banco Santander thus joins the mission of Bitcoin ETFs, just after the approval arrived from the SEC in the US a couple of weeks ago.
In mid-October, after years of trying, the US SEC finally approved BITO, the NYSE-listed ETF from ProShares that is said to be driving record Bitcoin volumes and contributing to the new ATH – All Time High of BTC.
BITO offers investors the opportunity to take a position on the price of Bitcoin, although as an underlying the fund will not have BTC but rather BTC Futures already traded for some time on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Nonetheless, BITO remains the first SEC-approved Bitcoin-related ETF, which in addition to the NYSE has also been listed on Blue Ocean Technologies‘ new alternative trading platform, to be traded from 8 PM to 4 AM New York time (the time when NYSE is closed).
Spanish banks and cryptocurrency products
Taking a look at the general situation of Spanish banks and the cryptocurrency services they offer, Banco Santander seems to be the sector leader.
In fact, according to the data, BBVA, CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell do not seem to have the same approach as Santander.
BBVA is making progress by launching in late 2020 a commercial service for buying, selling and storing digital assets in Switzerland, for its private banking clients, so that they can handle transactions in Bitcoin or have it stored.
By contrast, CaixaBank does not yet offer any cryptocurrency-related services, despite recognizing their potential.
Lastly, Banco Sabadell proposes a more “cautious” approach, waiting for crypto regulation before starting to launch any related products.
