An exchange-traded fund investing in bitcoin listed on Australia’s main stock market for the first time, adding to a wave of similar launches this year in the US and Hong Kong.

The VanEck Bitcoin ETF debuted Thursday on the exchange operated by ASX Ltd with a seed investment of about A$985,000 . The product is a feeder fund for the US$647 million VanEck Bitcoin Trust in the US.

US bitcoin ETFs went live in January and took Wall Street by storm, amassing US$56 billion in assets to date. Hong Kong permitted spot ETFs for bitcoin and ether in April, which have garnered a fraction of the interest of the US vehicles.

Sydney-based BetaShares Holdings Pty and DigitalX Ltd, another local player, are also lining up for listings on the main Australian board. A spokesperson for the ASX has said VanEck is the only applicant with a green light so far and that engagement is ongoing with other issuers.

Crypto ETFs are already available on CBOE Australia, the country’s other bourse. The latter - Global X 21Shares Bitcoin, Global X 21Shares Ethereum and Monochrome Bitcoin - have combined assets of about US$90 million.

“The Asia-Pacific region’s potential for virtual-asset ETFs may hit more than US$3 billion in the next few years,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Rebecca Sin wrote in a note. That would be roughly evenly split between Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea once the latter eventually permits crypto funds to list there, she added.

Bitcoin has roughly quadrupled since the start of 2023 in a comeback from a deep bear market. The rally reached a record high of US$73,798 in March but the token slipped back and momentum stalled of late.

  - Bloomberg