Swiss cryptocurrency investment management boutique FiCAS has launched the world’s first actively managed bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP).
The Bitcoin Capital Active ETP (BTCA) is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange with a management fee of 2%.
Issued by Bitcoin Capital AG, BTCA will be managed by FiCAS, led by founder Ali Mizani Oskui (pictured), who has been trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since 2013.
BTCA will trade bitcoin against the top 15 altcoins and has the ability to move to fiat e.g. US dollars when deemed necessary.
The allocation is based on investment research, technical and fundamental analysis, proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence applications.
Mizani commented: “Based on our in-depth trading and analytical experience, actively managing our underlyings allows us to preempt and react to market movements through the discretionary buying and selling of crypto assets to steer risk-adjusted returns.
“I have built my expertise in crypto trading since 2013, with a strong track record in outperforming the market. I look forward to bringing my trading experience to global and institutional markets with this pioneering product.”
Mattia Rattaggi, Chairman of the FiCAS Board, added, “Amid the current market environment of historically low interest rates and global equity market volatility, we are seeing a real desire among investors to diversify into alternative asset classes.
“A discretionary managed ETP is a much more appropriate new instrument in the context of the still novice cryptocurrency market and further bridges the worlds of traditional and crypto finance.”
Although this is the world's first active crypto ETP, the space is hotting up with a number of ETF issuers launching products.
21Shares, which offers the widest range, has been active in recent months with the launch of three sterling-hedged crypto ETPs in June.
The Swiss firm was also the second issuer to launch a crypto ETP on the Deutsche Boerse in July after ETC Group unveiled the BTCetc Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto (BTCE) via white-label platform HANetf in June.
WisdomTree also entered the space in December 2019 with the launch of the cheapest crypto ETP on the market, the WisdomTree Bitcoin ETP (BTCW), which charges 0.95%.
