Days after the SEC delayed making a decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application, VanEck filed with the SEC on Monday for a Bitcoin futures fund.
According to the filing, the proposed Bitcoin Strategy Fund would invest in Bitcoin futures contracts via a wholly-owned Cayman Islands subsidiary, as well as pooled investment vehicles and exchange-traded products that provide exposure to Bitcoin.
The fund would not invest directly in Bitcoin or other digital assets, however.
The fund will invest in cash-settled Bitcoin futures, with the value of Bitcoin underlying these futures determined by the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate as used by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Bitcoin Reference Rate is the volume-weighted average of the price of Bitcoin in U.S. dollars across five major exchanges.
The proposed fund would offer three classes of shares, providing different purchase options for different investment needs.
Class A shares would offered to the general public at net asset value, plus an initial sales charge of up to 5.57%, which is reduced for purchases of $25,000 or more.
Class I shares would be offered to eligible investors through financial intermediaries in Class I Agreements with VanEck. Class I shares have no sales charges, no CDRC, and no 12b-1 fee. Eligible investors must be making or have made minimum initial investments of at least $1 million.
Finally, Class Y shares would be offered to eligible investors in “wrap fee” or other fee-based programs, including Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans, offered through financial intermediaries and third-parties in Class Y agreements with VanEck.
In May, the SEC’s Division of Investment Management published an open letter that appeared to imply that the agency might find a mutual fund to be a more amenable wrapper for Bitcoin futures exposure, given that ETFs, “unlike mutual funds, cannot prevent additional investor assets from coming into the ETF if the ETF becomes too large or dominant in the market, or if the liquidity in the market starts to wane.”
VanEck No Stranger to Crypto
VanEck is no stranger to the digital asset space. The mutual fund manager has submitted multiple Bitcoin ETF filings over the years, with the latest, the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust submitted in December. The firm also filed an application with the SEC in May to launch the Vaneck Ethereum Trust, the first proposed Ethereum ETF in the U.S.
VanEck currently offers exposure to the digital assets space through the VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP), which offers exposure to companies that receive least 50% of their revenue from digital assets, including companies which participate in Bitcoin mining and exchange.
VanEck also recently launched the VanEck Bitcoin Tracker Fund, LP. The Bitcoin Tracker Fund is only open to accredited investors and some offshore accounts.
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