The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC)—a smaller competitor holding $120 million in property.
“As a part of this transaction, OBTC unitholders will obtain shares of BITB as a part of a liquidating distribution of OBTC,” stated Osprey and Bitwise in a Tuesday press launch. “For current BITB holders, there shall be no modifications to their shares or any modifications to the operation of BITB.”
Osprey has operated its Bitcoin Trust product since February 2021 with a construction just like the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust previous to its conversion into an ETF product. Whereas the fund passively invested its property in BTC, shares of the fund may see their worth commerce at a premium or low cost to its underlying BTC holdings, and subsequently diverge from Bitcoin’s worth.
For instance, Google finance information exhibits that shares in OBTC have been down 4.27% over the previous month, whereas the value of Bitcoin itself has been down 9.34%. In the meantime, the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF is down 8.56%, extra carefully following the underlying asset.
With OBTC buyers quickly to transform their holdings to BITB, they may expertise tighter monitoring and a smaller administration price: 0.2% in comparison with 0.49%.
“This announcement follows Osprey’s prior communication concerning… the consideration of a possible sale or merger of the Trust,” Osprey wrote. “The acquisition by Bitwise represents a big step in that course of, providing OBTC unitholders the chance to profit from the size and experience of Bitwise.”
Bitwise launched its Bitcoin ETF alongside 9 different rivals in January together with BlackRock, Constancy, and a newly transformed Grayscale. Regardless of fierce competitors, BITB has loved billions of {dollars} of inflows and now boasts $2.4 billion in property, making it the fifth largest Bitcoin spot ETF in america.
Final week, Bitwise additionally introduced that it had acquired ETC Group, increasing its suite of crypto ETP merchandise into the European market. Bitwise stated on the time that the acquisition would convey its property underneath administration (AUM) as much as $4.5 billion.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Day by day Debrief E-newsletter
Begin each day with the highest information tales proper now, plus authentic options, a podcast, movies and extra.
