The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) may launch a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) by the end of this year, according to a report by Business Insider Australia, which cited multiple people familiar with the situation.
A number of ETF applications are currently being assessed by the exchange, the report said,
The ASX wouldn’t confirm a potential ETF listing is in the works, but did say it is “spending an enormous amount of time” on digital assets, Business Insider said.
The ASX has acknowledged digital assets have become "too well-established" and “well known” for the exchange to ignore, the report said.
“You can see how mainstream this has become at an institutional level in developed markets, like the U.S., Canada, Europe and the UK. You can’t ignore that. We can’t ignore it, and we’re not,” ASX executive general manager Max Cunningham told the publication.
So far this year, Canada has listed four bitcoin ETFs and four ether ETFs on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).