The Cryptoholics set a new record hitting $28mil of trading volume by 1pm today , breaking the record for an ASX-listed ETF on its first day.
Hi all,
Betashares launches this ETF today.
About the ETF
The ETF aims to track the performance of the Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index.
The Index is designed to track the performance of companies that are committing material resources to developing, researching, supporting, innovating or utilising blockchain technology for their proprietary use or for use by others.
What companies are currently in the Index being tracked?
The index tracks a broad base of companies, many that only have relatively minor exposure to blockchain technology.
It appears the index is rebalanced twice a year, however, I was unable to find the September rebalance data.
Figure 1 - Betashares Blockchain Innovators ETF Top 10 as at November 4, 2021.
Correlation to Crypto Assets
A comparison between the index and the primary crypto assets:
Looking at the ETFs current top 10 holdings, they are completely different from the NASDAQ Blockchain Economy Index top 10 holdings reported in June 2021 - which is outlined below. I suspect the Betashares ETF, which appears to be more concentrated, and with a more direct exposure to crypto assets, will have a stronger correlation to Crypto asset prices than the NASDAQ Blockchain Economy Index has had in the past.
Notably, Galaxy Digital, Microstrategy, Marathon, Riot, Hut 8 hold significant holdings of digital currencies on their balance sheets. This ETF will have a strong correlation to Crypto asset prices. Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase also provide exposure to the exponential growth in adoption.
Figure 2 - NASDAQ Blockchain Economy Index Top 10 Holdings as at June 30, 2021
My Conclusion
The Betashares Blockchain Innovators ETF provides good exposure to the blockchain economy. However, I consider it inferior to holding crypto assets directly. But if one wants exposure with little effort, this is a good way to go.