Bessie Liu

Backed Finance, a Swiss-based company that is looking to bring real-world assets on-chain, has issued blB01, a tokenized short-term US treasury bond ETF on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 network.



The company claims this will be the first tokenized security to be available on Base and will be issued in compliance with Switzerland’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Act.&nbsp;



Under the DLT Act, all tokens must be fully collateralized and transferable across wallets, Backed Finance noted in a press release reviewed by Blockworks.&nbsp;



This means that for every token that is circulated, an equivalent number of the underlying asset is held by third-party custodians, Adam Levi, co-founder of Backed told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“In the case of <a href="https://basescan.org/tx/0x95c8f1643340e4cede1e30386f2d5e8245f968408d9f00f015a7bed2c6012c91">bIB01</a>, the underlying asset is the iShares Treasury Bond 0-1yr UCITS ETF (IB01), which tracks the investment results of an index composed of US Dollar denominated government bonds issued by the US Treasury, with remaining maturities between zero and one year,” Levi said.&nbsp;



Levi adds that Backed is not affiliated with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blackrock">BlackRock</a> and its token is not an iShares product.&nbsp;



Only qualified investors and licensed retailers that have been <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/kyc">KYC</a>’d by Backed and received anti-money laundering qualifications can purchase tokenized securities from Backed.&nbsp;



None of Backed’s financial assets are registered as US securities, and the company notes that it does not have any intentions to change this fact. This means that Backed’s tokens will only be available to persons outside of the United States.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gensler-testimony-pokemon-bitcoin">Gensler: Bitcoin is not a security, but tokenized Pokemon cards may be</a>



The Backed team currently has nine tokenized products including tokenized equities and fixed income.  According to <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/backedfi">data</a> from DeFiLlama, the project currently boasts over $46 million in total value locked (TVL). 



“We plan to bring more on-chain dependent on client demand — we have seen significant interest as our tokenization solution allows our clients to access these products without needing to interact with [traditional finance] directly themselves. If there is demand, we are happy to tokenize any security that is requested,” Levi said.



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Tokenized short-term US Treasury ETF coming to Base

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_629e95e1b7483" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The fund manager&#8217;s Australian listing aims to track the firm&#8217;s Canada-based funds</li>
 <li>3iQ joins a growing list of fund managers offering similar products amid a market downturn and declining trading volumes</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



3iQ has become the latest ETF manager to join the Australian market with two new listings on the Cboe Australia exchange.



The listed 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin Feeder ETF (BT3Q) and the 3iQ CoinShares Ether Feeder ETF (ET3Q), both domiciled in Australia, provide investors with exposure to 3iQ&#8217;s underlying ETFs based out of Canada and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.



The underlying ETFs invest in long-term holdings of bitcoin and ether from exchanges and OTCs that are vetted by 3iQ, the manager said in a statement on Tuesday. The manager, which holds around $1.2 billion in crypto assets on behalf of clients, is not the first to the table with its offerings.



In May, Switzerland-based 21Shares and London-based ETF Securities became <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/first-australian-spot-bitcoin-ether-etfs-to-go-live-next-week/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the first</a> in the country to debut their bitcoin and ether ETFs via a joint effort. Those listings were <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/australian-bitcoin-and-ether-etfs-delayed-due-to-standard-checks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">initially delayed</a> in April before being given the green light two weeks later. Australia-based <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/cboe-australia-lists-cosmos-physically-settled-ether-etf-amid-market-woes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cosmos Asset Manager</a> later joined the fray, adding its own physically-settled bitcoin and ether ETFs to the list toward the end of May. 



&#8220;We’re entering the Australian market with a significant point of difference, and that’s a proven track record of introducing and managing digital assets into regulated markets,&#8221; 3iQ told Blockworks when asked about competitors.



The variety for investors has come at a time when the Australian crypto market has been somewhat subdued, as evidenced in the debut <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/first-spot-crypto-etfs-in-australia-underwhelm-traders-amid-market-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trading volumes</a> among 21Shares&#8217; ETFs.



Still, the move marks a turning point in Australia&#8217;s crypto landscape and may prove an essential tool among larger players looking to get their feet wet with the nascent asset class.



ETFs remove the need for institutional and retail investors to set up digital wallets while offering a more secure solution by way of a sanctioned custodian, 3iQ said. Though, they are not without their inherent pitfalls, as typical ETFs tend to track the underlying price of cryptos, such as bitcoin, and are vulnerable to extreme periods of market volatility.



&#8220;There are risks associated with investing in cryptocurrency-based products,&#8221; 3iQ CEO Fred Pye said in the statement. &#8220;These products are considered very high risk and investors should carefully assess their risk profile and seek their own financial advice before investing&#8221;



Both funds, which are available for investment either via Cboe, a stockbroker, or an online brokerage account, are expected to feature a low fee structure with a total management expense ratio of 1.20%, according to the statement.



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3iQ Latest Crypto ETF Fund Manager To Join Australian Market

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_625f26542e72b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>21Shares, which has products listed on 10 regulated European exchanges, will feature two spot crypto ETFs</li>
 <li>The firm’s pair of ETFs are set to launch the same day as a fund proposed by Cosmos Asset Management, which intends to invest in shares of a Canadian bitcoin ETF</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The first Australian ETFs to invest directly in bitcoin and ether are set to hit the market next week while US fund issuers continue to work with regulators to secure a listing.



Switzerland-based 21Shares, the world’s largest issuer of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), has teamed up with ETF Securities to launch the funds.



The ETFS 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) and the ETFS 21Shares Ethereum ETF (EETH), which track the price of bitcoin and ether in Australian dollars, are fully backed by the respective assets held in cold storage by Coinbase.



Both ETFs are expected to list on the Cboe Australia exchange on April 27.



21Shares CEO Hany Rashwan told Blockworks the firm has been working to provide Australian investors easier access to crypto for years. Running the world’s longest-running spot bitcoin ETP, which launched in Switzerland in 2019, the firm has navigated everything “from contentious forks to stock splits,” he added.



“That valuable experience and deep data is consistently instrumental in all of our regulatory conversations,” Rashwan said. “There’s more to crypto than just bitcoin and ethereum, and we look forward to making the entire crypto world accessible and investable for everyone around the world.”



While ETFs investing directly in cryptoassets have launched across Europe, Canada and elsewhere, the products break new ground for Australia, whose regulators have previously viewed the digital assets as volatile and unfit for the country’s financial markets.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nfts-taxed-inadvertently-says-australian-senator-during-sydney-art-exhibit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Some efforts</a> from the country’s political elite signal a willingness to work constructively with crypto proponents in a bid to usher in a new age for Australian investors backed by appropriate <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/australia-seeks-licensing-of-crypto-exchanges-via-digital-services-act/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">legal frameworks</a>.



Those promises are being bolstered by attempts to push the country’s forward-thinking approach toward greater digital asset adoption including the private sectors’ experimentation with the nascent asset class.



Last month, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/anz-becomes-first-bank-to-mint-australian-digital-dollar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Australia’s ANZ Bank</a> became the first major financial institution in the country to issue and execute payment of a stablecoin linked to the nation’s dollar. A green light from the country’s primary clearing house marks yet another step along Australia’s journey to crypto adoption.



Indeed, the Australian Financial Review reported Tuesday that <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/australia-gets-go-ahead-to-list-countrys-first-bitcoin-etf-next-week/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cosmos Asset Management</a> would launch the country’s first bitcoin ETF on April 27. Instead of direct spot exposure, Cosmos’ fund is expected to invest in crypto through Purpose Investments’ bitcoin ETF — which launched on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange in February 2021.



21Shares has roughly $2.5 billion in assets under management. Its products are listed on 10 regulated European exchanges.



“Once we decided to build a range of crypto ETFs for the Australian market, there was only one partner we wanted to work with,” Graham Tuckwell, executive chairman of ETF Securities Australia, said in a statement. “[21Shares’] pioneering approach to secure investment in cryptocurrency has been emulated by other fund managers around the world.”



21Shares has launched a handful of ETPs this year, including products with Aave (AAVE), Chainlink (LINK) and Uniswap (UNI) as their underlying assets. Rashwan <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/21-shares-expands-crypto-etps/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously told Blockworks</a> that the firm aims to support what it considers to be the top 50 cryptocurrencies by the end of the year.



The pending launches come as the SEC continues denying spot bitcoin ETF proposals from US fund issuers. Crypto firm executives <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-execs-read-the-tea-leaves-on-spot-bitcoin-etf-approval/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">remain split</a> on when exactly such a product could be approved.



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