(Bloomberg) -- Paris-based alternative investment manager Melanion Capital received regulatory approval for an exchange-traded fund seeking to track the Bitcoin price and which satisfies key European Union rules.
The ETF meets the UCITS standard, a regulatory benchmark important to institutional investors, according to a company statement. The fund will invest in a basket of stocks intended to have a correlation of up to 90% with the Bitcoin price.
Cyril Sabbagh, head of ETF at Melanion Capital, argued the new product is a better option than a straight Bitcoin investment because it addresses the risk of loss or piracy of tokens, a key worry for institutions.
A number of crypto-linked funds have been launched this year. In the U.S., regulators have yet to approve an ETF investing directly in digital tokens, though more than a dozen companies are looking to start one. About 10 have filed for authorization since the end of 2020, according to a tally kept by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Read more: How Wall Street’s Quest for a Bitcoin ETF Is Going: QuickTake