Australia's largest securities exchange, ASX, is expected to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs this year, according to a Bloomberg report.
Sources familiar with the matter claimed that the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds is set to take place "before the end of 2024." An ASX spokesperson told Bloomberg that the exchange "continues to engage with a number of issuers that are interested in admitting cryptoasset-based ETFs," while not committing to a timeframe.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs from asset manager 21Shares first launched in Australia in 2022, on the CBOE Australia exchange, but ASX accounts for the lion's share—around four-fifths—of the country's equity trading.
Applications for Australian spot Bitcoin ETFs are pending from asset management firms VanEck, DigitalX, and BetaShares, whose head of digital assets said that U.S. Bitcoin ETF inflows "prove digital assets are here to stay."
Spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved in the U.S. in January, and initially saw rapid inflows. However, in recent weeks, the flood of cash into U.S. Bitcoin ETFs has slowed and reversed amid "moderating" investor enthusiasm for the products, with three straight days of outflows according to data from Farside Investors.
Just three of the past 10 days saw net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, as skittish investors reacted to slower-than-expected growth in the economy over the first quarter, pointing to continued high interest rates.
Waning enthusiasm for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs doesn't appear to have dented enthusiasm for the products around the world, however. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) recently approved multiple spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs from asset managers ChinaAMC, Harvest, and Bosera HashKey, with trading set to begin this week.
Edited by Andrew Hayward