Japan’s regulators said to gauge interest in Bitcoin ETFs

Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has abandoned plans to allow cryptocurrency-based derivatives, such as Bitcoin (BTC) futures, but it may approve exchange-traded funds, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed source familiar with the matter.

According to Bloomberg’s source, the FSA is currently gauging industry interest in ETFs that track digital currencies. In its report, published earlier today, the newswire noted that the ETFs based on more traditional asset classes such as stocks have never become particularly popular in Japan. The country’s ETF market is worth $335 billion (with about 75% owned by the central bank), Bloomberg notes. This is less than 10% of the size of the US ETF sector.

In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected a number of Bitcoin ETF proposals and now has until February 27 to announce its decision on a proposal by from fund manager VanEck and blockchain firm SolidX, which aim to launch an ETF on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). At the same time, US regulators have approved crypto derivative trading, which has allowed several players, including Chicago rivals CBOE and CME, to launch derivative products.

So far Switzerland has been the only country to approve a crypto-based exchange-traded product. In November, last year, London-based fintech firm Amun listed an ETP tracking a basket of five digital currencies on the Swiss stock exchange.

“The Amun ETP will give institutional investors that are restricted to investing only in securities or do not want to set up custody for digital assets exposure to cryptocurrencies,” Amun’s chief executive officer Hany Rashwan said at the time. “It will also provide access for retail investors that currently have no access to crypto exchanges due to local regulatory impediments.”

According to the Bloomberg report, that product, which trades under the ticker ‘HODL’, has attracted $6 million and averages less than $1 million in daily turnover.