Purpose Bitcoin ETF starts trading on TSX

The Canadian dollar-denominated exchange-traded fund noncurrency hedged units and U.S. dollar-denominated ETF noncurrency hedged units of Purpose Bitcoin ETF began trading Feb. 18 on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker BTCC.B and BTCC.U, respectively.

Purpose Investments Inc. launched what it described as the world's first bitcoin ETF. The company said the ETF will invest directly in physically settled bitcoin, not derivatives, providing investors access to the asset class of cryptocurrency without the associated risk of self-custody within a digital wallet.

The ETF will be backed directly by physically settled bitcoin holdings, similar to physically backed gold or silver products.

Bloomberg News reported that investors exchanged $165 million worth of shares of the ETF on its debut.

Purpose Investments will act as manager of the ETF and Ether Capital Corp. will act as a special consultant to Purpose Investments.

In the U.S., a number of companies have filed to launch bitcoin ETFs, but the Securities and Exchange Commission had generally rejected applications primarily due to market fraud and manipulation concerns.