Switzerland is set to offer its first-ever spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) for retail investors to trade in November 2026. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) approved the fund on October 20 but did not name the issuer. On October 22, BIT Asset Management announced that its Bitcoin Fund ETF, ticker BBIT, was expected to start trading on SIX Swiss Exchange next month, having been approved for public offering in Switzerland.
Source: finma.ch
A spot Bitcoin ETF invests directly in Bitcoin rather than indirectly via derivatives or other financial instruments that track the cryptocurrency’s price. Investors buy shares in a fund that trades on a stock exchange instead of directly owning Bitcoins.
BIT Asset Management said the new fund was structured differently to most of the bitcoin products currently available in Europe. Products currently available are exchange traded products (ETPs), debt securities that have risks specific to the issuers.
Bitcoin Fund ETF will be established as a Swiss collective investment scheme, while its assets will be segregated from those of the manager, which should provide additional protection to investors in case of insolvency. BIT Asset Management said the assets are ring-fenced.
It is classified as other funds for alternative investments with particular risk within Switzerland’s regulatory framework. The fund has been approved for public offering in Switzerland, but investors are warned not to assume that any regulatory review diminishes the risks of investing in a cryptocurrency.
FINMA said it had approved Switzerland’s first-ever fund that invests solely in Bitcoin. The Swiss financial regulator said it had allowed funds investing predominantly in a basket of cryptocurrencies since 2021. It said Bitcoin had a longer trading history and greater liquidity than other cryptocurrencies, which may partly explain why it has chosen to approve a fund that invests solely in the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The regulator said other fund providers had applied for Bitcoin ETFs, and there is a possibility further products will follow soon after the approval, but it did not give a deadline for the launch of any competing products.
The expected launch of the bitcoin fund provides Swiss retail investors with an alternative channel through which they can participate in the price performance of the cryptocurrency. The product may also appeal to investors who wish to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without having to open a digital wallet and store it themselves.
Bitcoin, however, is a highly volatile asset, and investors buying shares in the fund run the risk of losing money, just like with any other investment. The value of the shares in the fund will depend on the price of bitcoin, which can fluctuate substantially, as well as other costs specific to the fund.
The expected launch in November will represent a significant milestone in the development of a regulated cryptocurrency market in Switzerland, with the spotlight now on whether it will attract significant numbers of retail investors and whether other fund providers will follow.
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