UPDATED 00:13 EDT / JANUARY 01 2015

NEWS

Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF files to list 1 million shares on NASDAQ

small__10979443185The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust exchange traded fund (ETF) is going public following a final filing Wednesday to have the trust listed on the NASDAQ.

The offering will see one million shares listed under the stock symbol COIN with an IPO price of $20.09 per share, not 20.1 million shares as incorrectly reported by other outlets.

According to the prospectus, the investment objective of the trust “is for the shares to reflect the performance of the value of a bitcoin as represented by Winkdex, less the Trust’s expenses.”

“The Shares are intended to constitute a cost-effective and convenient means of gaining investment exposure to bitcoins” the prospectus continued, providing “investors with an alternative that allows a level of participation in bitcoin markets through the securities market.”

The fund is run by the Winklevoss brothers Cameron and Tyler, best known publicly for their claim to ownership of Facebook Inc. (as also portrayed in the movie The Social Network.) Sponsoring the listing is Math-Based Asset Services LLC.

The twins have had mixed results in the Bitcoin marketplace previously, having invested in now defunct BitInstant Inc, founded by recently jailed Charlie Shrem, and currency exchange platform Winklevoss Index, LLC.

The first filing for the trust was in July 2013. As we reported then:

Since the trust will be based on holding Bitcoins, the filing includes some extremely amusing risks that are pertinent primarily to Bitcoin. The first risk factor: “The loss or destruction of a private key required to access a Bitcoin may be irreversible. The Trust’s loss of access to its private keys or its experience of a data loss relating to the Trust’s Bitcoins could adversely affect an investment in the Shares.” It’s doubtful that the Trust will hold all its bitcoins in one wallet—but if there ever was a situation where backups and redundancy would become a powerful issue it would be when $20m in BTC was on the line.

The year ahead is shaping up as a great year in the Bitcoin space following a rash of companies accepting Bitcoin in the last half of 2014, despite turbulent times with the exchange and valuation of the cryptocurrency.

The value proposition of the Trust is giving mainstream investors the ability to partake in the market without necessarily having a broad knowledge of how it works. The listing also adds to the momentum of Bitcoin becoming more and more mainstream.

photo credit: FreshTilledSoil via photopin cc


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