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State Street Global Advisors, the world’s third-largest exchange traded funds provider, doesn’t believe there is a strong enough investment case to launch crypto products.
That is despite its largest rival — BlackRock — filing for a bitcoin ETF in the US.
“The noise on crypto was much stronger two years ago. But the big question is ‘what is the investment case for crypto?’,” Rory Tobin, global head of State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR ETF business told Financial News.
Tobin, who is also head of State Street Global Advisors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the asset manager had a similar challenge trying to articulate the investment case for gold.
SPDR oversees the $59bn SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s largest gold ETF backed by physical bullion, which it launched in 2004.
READ BlackRock files for bitcoin ETF in the US
“In the classic asset allocation world, people want to see a return on assets. In the case of gold, it doesn’t pay any income or a dividend. It’s either buy or sell, so we’ve had to develop an investment case for gold,” he said. “It’s been hard to come up with an investment case for crypto.”
Despite conducting research, Tobin said State Street Global Advisors didn’t have “any immediate plans” to launch crypto products. It is more focused on how blockchain technology can be used to tokenise funds.
The comments from one of State Street Global Advisors’ most senior executives come as rivals look to roll out crypto-focused products.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and ETF provider globally, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 15 June to launch a bitcoin ETF.
Other asset managers have tried and failed to get the green light for crypto products, including VanEck, WisdomTree and Grayscale, which have all had applications for bitcoin ETFs rejected by the US regulator.
According to BlackRock’s filing, the iShares Bitcoin Trust would use Coinbase as its custodian and would track the cryptocurrency’s underlying price.
READ Fidelity still cautious on crypto: ‘We’re not pounding the table telling everyone to buy bitcoin’
The filing comes almost a year after BlackRock unveiled a private spot bitcoin trust, which is available only to institutional clients in the US.
The private trust, which launched in August, came after the $9tn asset manager announced it was partnering with Coinbase Global to provide users of BlackRock’s institutional management platform Aladdin access to bitcoin.
Other asset managers in Europe are also adopting a cautious approach to crypto.
Fidelity International, which launched its first bitcoin product last year, said it was in no rush to roll out more crypto products.
“We’re not pounding the table telling everyone to buy bitcoin. But if larger clients want access, we can now provide it,” Christian Staub, managing director for Fidelity International’s European business told FN in May.
Fidelity’s bitcoin ETP, which tracks the price of the cryptocurrency, is available to professional and institutional investors in Europe. Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of US-based Fidelity Investments, acts as custodian for the product.
The bitcoin application from BlackRock comes amid a regulatory crackdown on the crypto sector.
Coinbase, which is the largest crypto exchange in the US, was sued by the SEC earlier this month for allegedly making “billions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities”.
The SEC alleged the firm mixed traditional exchange, broker and clearing services without registering those functions, as required by US securities rules.
The US watchdog has also sued crypto trading platform Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao over more than a dozen charges, including misusing customer funds.
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To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email David Ricketts
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