Lack of Interest in Australian Bitcoin ETFs Blamed on Bad Launch Timing, Strong Inflows Globally

cryptonews.com:

Bitcoin (BTC)-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of various types are now widely available to investors around the world. But the popularity of the funds varies, with investors in Australia showing almost no interest in trading the recently-launched ETFs there.

Australia is the region that stands out the most for its lack of interest in bitcoin ETFs, where the first such ETFs launched as recently as April this year. Since then until June 2, ETFs in the country have only amassed BTC 199 (USD 5.96m), data from crypto researcher Arcane Research shows, as shared by their analyst Vetle Lunde.

The weak interest in this region stands in sharp contrast to Europe, where local ETPs (exchange-traded products) have BTC 92,256 (USD 2.76bn) under management, the highest number of all regions.

Meanwhile, Europe was followed by Canada as the region with the second-highest number of bitcoin under management, with BTC 75,333 (USD 2.25bn) held by Canadian ETFs as of June 3, the data showed.

According to Arcane Research analyst Vetle Lunde, the muted interest in bitcoin ETFs among Australian investors can be partly explained by the fact that the first ETFs there launched around the same time as the collapse of LUNA and the Terra ecosystem happened.

“[T]hese ETFs launched at the worst time possible,” Lunde told Cryptonews.com, explaining that the launch happened at “the peak of the wide de-risking across all equities” and on top of the crypto market meltdown that was ignited by the collapse of LUNA and terraUSD (UST).

He added that flows into Australian bitcoin ETFs are likely to strengthen over time, and opined that the ETF known as EBTC issued by ETFS Management stands to benefit the most due to its direct exposure to bitcoin.

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