Fidelity applies for Bitcoin ETF

The company's proposed exchange-traded fund would track the cryptocurrency using pricing from U.S.-based exchanges including Bitstamp, Coinbase and Gemini.

Fidelity Investments applied to list a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund that would track the cryptocurrency using pricing from U.S.-based exchanges.

The firm’s Wise Orgin Bitcoin Trust would use underlying prices from exchanges that include Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit and Kraken, Fidelity said in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The application comes a month after North America’s first Bitcoin ETFs, including the Purpose Bitcoin ETF and another from Evolve Funds Group, began trading in Canada.

Several other Bitcoin ETF proposals in the U.S., including those put forth by Gemini crypto-exchange founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have failed to pass SEC muster.

“The digital assets ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years, creating an even more robust marketplace for investors and accelerating demand among institutions,” Fidelity said in an emailed statement. “An increasingly wide range of investors seeking access to Bitcoin has underscored the need for a more diversified set of products offering exposure to digital assets.”

Fidelity Chief Executive Abigail Johnson is among the highest-profile Wall Street proponents of the blockchain technology that backs Bitcoin, and the firm has dabbled in the space since 2014.

In 2019, it started Fidelity Digital Assets, a unit meant to manage these products for hedge funds, family offices and trading firms. And last August, Fidelity launched its first Bitcoin fund, the Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I through a new business unit called Fidelity Digital Funds, a passively managed, Bitcoin-only fund will be made available to qualified purchasers with a minimum investment set at $100,000