Fidelity Digital Assets — which specializes in solutions to institutional investors on the cryptocurrency market — was chosen by Jacobi Asset Management to custody Bitcoin (BTC) for the recently announced first spot Bitcoin ETF in Europe.
The novel asset is already listed and being exchanged under the ticker BCOIN at Euronext Amsterdam for $20.05, according to data retrieved by Finbold from Euronext Live Markets, at press time on August 15.
There is a maximum of 50,000 shares for this traded fund described as:
“The Fund’s overall objective is to buy and hold all of its assets in long-term holdings of Bitcoin and seeks to provide holders of Participating Shares with the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation”, according to Jacobi’s website.
But the asset management firm won’t be holding the Bitcoin themselves, a task delegated to Fidelity Digital Assets. Investors will be charged an annual management fee of 1.5%.
Fidelity Digital Assets and EDX Markets
Fidelity is a crypto assets specialized firm that provides investment, custody, and research services to institutions and individual investors.
In September 2022, Fidelity joined leading global financial institutions, including Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Virtu Financial, to announce the formation of a compliant cryptocurrency exchange, EDX Markets, targeting United States institutional investors.
EDX was officially launched in June 2023, amid regulatory scrutiny by the SEC against the crypto market, with only four cryptocurrencies listed: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Following the launch, BCH price increased by 200% in 10 days.
The Bitcoin ETF (BCOIN) will focus on ESG
Jacobi Asset Management also promises an ESG-responsible approach to their Bitcoin ETF (BCOIN). Billed as the first decarbonized digital asset fund compliant with Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which applies to funds promoting environmental and social objectives.
The Bitcoin Network has been targeted by ESG supporters in the last years, due to the high- energy consumption by Bitcoin miners, while these entities compete against each other through generated computing power to discover the next valid block, each 10 minutes, to earn the block reward composed by 6.25 BTC ($183,125) plus network fees paid by users.
Data from Digiconomist shows an annualized total carbon footprint of 59.78 Mt CO2, comparable to the carbon footprint of Morocco. An annualized total electrical energy consumption of 107.19 TWh, comparable to the power consumption of Kazakhstan. And an annualized electronic waste of 59.82 kt, comparable to the small IT equipment waste of the Netherlands.
BCOIN management firm, Jacobi, partnered with digital asset platform Zumo to implement a verifiable built-in Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) solution, in order to comply with ESG demands.
