An investment firm FiCAS that manages Bitcoin Capital Active Exchange Traded Product, or BTCA, hopes it can foster mass adoption with its product that is traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange. It can discretionarily allocate funds to fifteen different cryptocurrencies and fiat. Daniel Diemers, one of the directors of FiCAS, the company that manages the product, told Cointelegraph that these types of products are essential for the mass adoption of Bitcoin:
It is easy tradable. We have seen already here in Switzerland that some of the popular online banks like Swissquote, which is a bank based entirely in your smartphone. For them, it was easy to list the product. So if you're aligned with one of these online banks or you do online brokerage, it's very easy to find a product.
The fact that the manager can discretionarily allocate funds to both crypto and fiat gives it an advantage over similar products, said Diemers. He clarified that the team relies on four frameworks to optimize their portfolio: technical analysis, fundamentals, sentiment analysis, and what he calls an "agency model". The latter comes down to observing the behavior of other major players in the market. The allocation is made publicly available on a monthly basis. According to the latest disclosure, almost 83% was invested in Bitcoin and 12% in Bitcoin Cash (BCH), with only a bit above 1% allocated to Ethereum (ETH).
Initially, the BTCA was issued with the collateral value of 100 Swiss francs and has since appreciated 10%. In comparison, Grayscale's Bitcoin (BTC) Trust routinely commands a 20% premium in the over-the-counter market. In the case of Grayscale, the premium can be explained by the fact that it is more convenient for investors as they do not have to deal with wallets or custodians. They are also able to command such a markup due to the limited competition in the space.