Fidelity Gears up to Roll Out a Spot BTC ETF in Canada This Week

Fidelity Investments, a leading asset management firm, is readying to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on physical Bitcoin (BTC) in Canada this week. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, revealed this news through a tweet earlier today, noting that the product is titled Fidelity Advantage Bitcoin ETF (FBTC).

Balchunas tweet read,

“SEMI-SHOCK: Fidelity launching a spot bitcoin ETF in Canada this week. Didn’t know about this. Will easily be the biggest asset manager to date with a bitcoin ETF.”

According to him, this move should be embarrassing to the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) because its strict policies have forced one of the most storied names in investing in the US to migrate to Canada to serve its clients.

Providing more details about FBTC, Fidelity’s website notes that the company will manage the ETF through its in-house services to ensure the secure storage of BTC. Fidelity added that the ETF is RRSP and TFSA eligible. Reportedly, FBTC will obtain BTC physical BTC to expose Fidelity’s clients to the leading crypto by market cap directly.

Canada’s crypto-friendly continues fostering innovation

This news comes after Fidelity, which has over $4.2 in assets under management (AUM), got the go-ahead to launch the first BTC institutional custodial service in Canada earlier this month. The company achieved this feat through Fidelity Clearing Canada (FCC).

The firm’s swift crypto moves come after its crypto-focused arm, Fidelity Digital Assets, surveyed its institutional investors earlier this year and found 70% of the respondents intend to buy or invest in digital assets. Additionally, Fidelity found that 90% of the institutional investors planning to invest in crypto intend to do so before 2026.

Canada’s crypto-friendly regulation saw it approve the first spot BTC ETF in the world in February, positioning the country as a crypto hub. The crypto-friendly stance emanates from the fact that the country’s financial regulators don’t consider cryptos a threat to its financial system.

US lags in spot BTC ETF approval

The US SEC has held out on approving a spot BTC for years now, citing investor protection concerns. While the regulator has approved three ETFs tied to the BTC futures market, investors prefer a spot BTC ETF. While experts predict that the SEC will approve a physical BTC in the coming year, the regulator is gunning for more oversight over the crypto market before approving such a product.

Meanwhile, the SEC’s hesitance in approving a spot BTC ETF puts the US market at a disadvantage, seeing as more countries continue embracing physical BTC products.

Apart from Canada, Singapore approved two institutional-grade BTC funds from Fintonia Group in the past week. Dubbed Fintonia Bitcoin Physical Fund and Fintonia Secured Yield Fund, these funds offer institutional investors simple, secure exposure to BTC.