Companies that hold at least 1,000 BTC will be eligible for inclusion in the fund
Exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer Bitwise has filed for an ETF that would include businesses holding very large amounts of Bitcoin (BTC-USD).
A regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday revealed that Bitwise has officially filed to launch the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF.
ETF Store President Nate Geraci noted in an X post that the new ETF, if approved, would include companies that hold at least 1,000 Bitcoin in their corporate treasuries, dubbed the “bitcoin standard”.
Bitwise would also require each company included in the ETF to have a market capitalization of at least $100 million, a minimum average daily liquidity of $1 million, and a public free float below 10%.
Moreover, the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF would ensure a measure of diversification by requiring that no single fund component would have a weighting exceeding 25%.
Analysis: Is a Bitcoin ETF “virus spreading”?
Commenting on Bitwise’s filing for the new ETF, Geraci argued that “the BTC treasury operations virus is spreading.” This may be a reference to Strive Asset Management’s recent application for a Bitcoin bond ETF, which would invest in convertible bonds issued by Bitcoin-holding companies like Microstrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR).
Geraci also posted a chart showing some companies that hold more than 1,000 Bitcoin. These include Microstrategy, Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) and, interestingly enough, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Many people already own Tesla shares and/or have exposure to Tesla through various index funds. Consequently, some investors may end up with high Tesla stock exposure if they buy Bitwise’s new ETF and if that ETF has a heavy Tesla weighting.
The bigger-picture question, though, is whether the recent proliferation of Bitcoin-related ETFs has become a “virus” that’s “spreading” out of control. Geraci isn’t necessarily asking this, but it’s a question worth considering.
On the other hand, it’s probably not a terrible thing for cryptocurrency market participants to have more investment choices. If people can choose and use the new Bitcoin-related ETFs responsibly — and that’s a very big “if” — then freedom of choice might be exactly what the market needs if broad-based crypto adoption is to take place in the back half of the 2020s.
