Here we are waiting, twiddling our thumbs, for the eventual possible approval of a Bitcoin ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission – and we’ve been waiting for quite a while.
The Swiss might look at us in our digital breadline and laugh – because they are worlds ahead when it comes to listing cryptocurrency ETFs on national exchanges.
This Monday, tech media are now reporting that Switzerland’s biggest exchange, SIX, will have a new Ripple-based ETF (technically reported as an “exchange-traded product” or ETP) with the ticker moniker AXRP. The use of an “ETP” makes sense according to financial regulations within the country.
“It should also be noted that the ETP is unlike an ETF as there is a distinction in how they are regulated in Switzerland,” wrote Danny Scopelliti at Bitcoinist of the earliest such products and their Swiss status.
In addition to this new report, we have six pre-existing cryptocurrency ETFs established in the Swiss economy last November, including an index that includes Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.
There’s a lot of alphabet soup on the Swiss exchange dedicated to helping investors there to get in and out of cryptocurrencies through exchange traded processes.
And again, we’re still waiting.
Why are the Swiss eating our lunch on cryptocurrency ETFs?
“Amun (the company behind the products) considered nearly two dozen markets across the globe for the launch before settling on Switzerland,” wrote Dave Dierking in SeekingAlpha at the time. “The country has long been considered to have a looser regulatory environment and Amun is hoping a successful launch of its crypto ETP will lead to greater acceptance of digital currencies around the world.”
Other parts of the world are not as much into crypto trailblazing as our quiche-eating, gun-toting Swiss friends.
For example, current reports show that South Korea is waiting on the US to make decisions about cryptocurrency in order to move forward with its own national programs.
At the same time, we’ve reported that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is looking to get more involved in cryptocurrency specifically to counter “first strike” American advances.
The world is turning crypto on us – and that’s great news for crypto HODLers!
So take a look at your portfolio and see if it could use some rebalancing – not just because of crypto hype in general – but because we really are moving fast into a new cryptocurrency world.