The London-based investment management company, Fidelity International, listed a Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe in response to increased institutional demand.
- The product, called the Fidelity Physical Bitcoin ETP, began trading on Germany’s Deutsche Börse AG and Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Tuesday (February 15, 2022) under the ticker symbol “FBTC.”
- The Bitcoin ETP launch targets institutional and professional clients. A survey by Fidelity Digital Assets in July 2021 showed that 70% of institutional respondents were planning to diversify into digital assets. According to a statement from Christian Staub, Fidelity International’s managing director for Europe:
“As this technology becomes increasingly accepted, our clients are rightly asking for an efficient way to benefit from this trend. FBTC offers clients an institutional quality solution to enter the market in a familiar, simple and secure way.”
- Furthermore, the physically-backed Bitcoin ETP will charge a fee of 0.75%, which is said to be “the joint-cheapest on the European market along with SEBA Bank’s Bitcoin Tracker Certificate USD (SBTCU).”
- Fidelity Digital Assets will act as the custodian of the ETP, while Eurex Clearing will centrally clear the product. FBTC will be available for listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange in the coming weeks.
- Fidelity Investments started as the International investment subsidiary of the Boston-based multinational financial services giant Fidelity Investments and later started operating as an independent firm in 1980.
- Investment management firm Invesco also launched a Bitcoin ETP in November 2021. As reported by CryptoPotato, the Invesco Physical Bitcoin ETN listed on Deutsche Boerse’s digital stock exchange, Xetra, under the ticker symbol BTIC.