WisdomTree Joins Swiss Stock Exchange as Physically-Backed Bitcoin ETP Issuer

WisdomTree has joined Swiss Stock Exchange as a new issuer to its trading segment of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) with its physically-backed Bitcoin ETP. This increases the number of ETP issuers at SIX to 4 and the number of tradable ETPs to 19, of which more than 50% have a crypto currency as underlying.

The announcement strengthens the exchange’s position as the leading regulated marketplace for products with crypto currencies as underlyings, with the number of available products amounting to 76. SIX Exchange has processed the trading of CHF 502 million year-to-date in these products, which represents an increase of 14% compared to 2018.

An ETP is a collateralized, non-interest-paying bearer debt security issued as a security and traded as well as redeemed in the same structure on a continuous basis. Collateral is deposited with a third party and amounts to at least 100% of the outstanding amount. ETPs relate to an underlying instrument that is admitted by the Regulatory Board of SIX Exchange Regulation, i.e. that has a price that is set regularly and that is publicly accessible. Unlike ETFs, an ETP is no collective investment scheme in the sense of the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA) and with that is not supervised by FINMA. This product is not CCP eligible.

WisdomTree sponsors and issues UCITS Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) as well as Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) at SIX since March 2015 and currently has 49 smart beta ETFs listed at SIX of which the majority are equity ETFs.

Danielle Reischuk, Senior ETFs & ETPs Sales Manager at SIX, commented: “We congratulate WisdomTree on the launch of their new product and are proud that they have chosen SIX as their listing platform for their Bitcoin ETP. This underlines our attractiveness as a listing location and regulated trading venue, especially for products on crypto currencies”.

Earlier this year, SIX Group announced the launch of a new blockchain-powered exchange, dubbed SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), in the second half of 2019. The platform platform will run in parallel to existing SIX platforms and will use blockchain distributed ledger to bridge traditional finance and the technology of cryptocurrencies. According to its CEO Jos Dijsselhof, the exchange has selected the technology for the time efficiency and improved security it offers across all stages of stock trading and settlement.

“The fact is, it takes two days for the buyer of stock to become the owner. The trade itself only takes a fraction of a second, but after that payments have to be settled and titles transferred. If we put it all on our digital exchange, then the whole process takes only a few seconds. This makes the market more efficient, but at the same time also takes risks out of the system”, said Dijsselhof.