The asset-management arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. submitted an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focusing on securities of crypto-related firms, as per Bloomberg reports.
Goldman Sachs Innovate DeFi and Blockchain Equity ETF would follow the Solactive Decentralized Finance and Blockchain Index. According to the prospectus, the fund would invest at least 80% of its assets in securities, depositary receipts, and stocks of firms included in the index, including collateral retained from securities lending.
Several crypto-related firms have gone public in recent months, providing more choices for equity investors interested in the area. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, launched in the spring. Crypto exchanges such as Kraken and FTX have also been considering going public, as have investment vehicles such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
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Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors, and Goldman hopes to provide exposure to it. As per tracker DeFi Pulse, these applications allow for peer-to-peer lending, borrowing, and trading, and they contain a total of $64.5 billion in funds. Blockchain, the ETF’s other possible investment category, may include any firms that build digital ledgers for purposes such as payments.
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In recent months, the multinational investment bank has reopened its crypto trading department to assist clients with publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) futures. On top of announcing intentions in June to provide Ethereum (ETF) options and futures trading.
The New York City headquartered firm applied for an ETF at a time when Bitcoin has been locked in a trading range of $30,000 to $40,000 for weeks, much below its mid-April high of $65,000.
Goldman plans to launch the ETF “as soon as possible after the effective date of the Registration Statement.” The fund’s shares are intended to be traded on a “national securities exchange.”
Further afield data shows Canada’s institutional ETF investors remain bullish on Bitcoin. At the same time, the first Bitcoin ETF in South America has already begun trading on the Brazilian stock exchange, in addition to the Brazilian SEC recently approving the first Ethereum ETF in the region.
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