DUBAI (Reuters) – The Bitcoin Fund debuted on Nasdaq Dubai on Wednesday, changing into the Middle East’s first listed cryptocurrency fund.
The fund, which was listed by Canadian digital asset administration agency 3iQ on the Toronto Stock Exchange final 12 months, has roughly $1.5 billion in belongings below administration and plans to handle double that subsequent 12 months.
“With the itemizing of the Bitcoin Fund, it’s going to provide folks entry in the area to this fund on the Dubai alternate in the hours that the Dubai alternate trades at,” Frederick Pye, founder and CEO of 3iQ, informed Reuters.
“If the volumes are vital, we’ll be trying to increase capital to extend the scale of the Bitcoin Fund right here in Dubai and we’ll proceed to subject shares based mostly on the demand that comes from the area,” Pye mentioned in an interview.
The itemizing will assist fulfill demand for funding diversification in the area, in addition to environmental, social and governance (ESG) wants, comparable to for pension funds and household places of work, Pye mentioned.
China’s crackdown on mining cryptocurrencies had hit digital foreign money costs, Pye mentioned, however the timing of this had truly helped those that purchased into the Dubai itemizing.
“We’re very excited as a result of once we hit an all-time excessive, our buyers and our purchasers and our mates can have doubled their cash,” Pye added.
Reporting by Jacob Greaves and Abdel Hadi Ramahi; Writing by Yousef Saba; Editing by Alexander Smith
