Asset manager VanEck has filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register a new exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Digital Asset ETF will allow institutional investors to invest in shares of companies whose activities are related to cryptocurrencies.
The ETF will be linked to the MVIS ® Global Digital Assets Equity Index, which tracks the performance of digital asset companies. This number includes operators of cryptocurrency exchanges, payment services, mining companies and holders of large volumes of digital currencies, such as MicroStrategy.
As a general rule, the index includes companies with more than 50% of their income related to the cryptocurrency direction. There are now several firms in the industry that plan to go public and may be added to the index, including Coinbase and Bakkt. The Digital Assets ETF will aim to invest at least 80% of its assets in the index representatives.
"Companies whose revenues are less than 50% backed by the global digital asset segment, including semiconductor manufacturers and online money transfer services, can be added to the index to meet the minimum component count requirement," the filing says.
In December, VanEck re-filed an application with the SEC to register a bitcoin ETF and subsequently received a lawsuit from its former partner SolidX, who claims that the company uses their joint developments to launch the product individually. SolidX has been working on creating a bitcoin ETF since 2015, but it was VanEck who first applied for registration of such an instrument in accordance with the law" On Investment Companies " in 2017.