BlackRock Brazil to Introduce Depositary Receipts Fund Emulating US Bitcoin ETF

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has announced that its iShares Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) will be available in Brazil through the launch of a new BTC Brazilian Depositary Receipts (BDRs) ETF. Trading for the new product will commence on March 1. BlackRock will collaborate with Brazilian financial market infrastructure provider B3 to offer this ETF. Karina Saade, the President of BlackRock Brazil, made this announcement at the company’s headquarters in São Paulo. The Brazilian ETF is essentially the same as the BTC ETF that BlackRock introduced in the United States in January. It will mirror the performance of the US ETF and have an administrative fee of 0.25%, which will be offset by a one-year exemption on the first $5 billion of assets under management (AUM). It is important to note that BDRs are subject to full taxation. The Brazilian fund will be accessible to investors who already have a minimum of 1 million reals ($201,000) invested in the market. However, BlackRock Brazil is still awaiting approval for retail sales. Currently, there are 13 ETFs with exposure to cryptocurrencies listed on B3, which began listing in 2021. These ETFs have a combined value of 2.5 billion reals ($503 million) and have witnessed a trade volume of 30 million reals ($5 million) so far this year. The BlackRock spot BTC ETF was one of the 10 approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10. Within two weeks, the fund accumulated $2 billion in AUM and had the largest debut month in the history of ETFs, tying with Fidelity’s spot BTC fund. At present, the BlackRock ETF has over $8 billion in AUM. According to reports, BlackRock may also consider launching a spot Ether (ETH) ETF in Brazil if it receives approval from the SEC to launch one in the United States.