ETF Filing: REX Plans Bitcoin Fund Pair

The two products will offer long and short exposure to bitcoin.

REX ETFs has filed for a long/short pair of ETFs that will seek to provide exposure to the price movements of the bitcoin cryptocurrency. The REX Bitcoin Strategy ETF and REX Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF will both be actively managed and will not invest directly in bitcoin. The former will offer long exposure to bitcoin, while the latter will aim to capture short performance.

Both funds are slated to list on the Bats exchange, which is owned by ETF.com’s parent company, CBOE. The filing did not include tickers or expense ratios.

Similar Fund

Rather than investing in actual bitcoin, the ETFs will invest in bitcoin-related financial instruments, primarily futures contracts. The filing, at least for the long exposure fund, is strikingly similar to that of the VanEck Vectors Bitcoin Strategy ETF that was put into registration earlier this month.

However, the REX ETFs’ prospectus notes that the notional value of its bitcoin exposure will be roughly 100% of the total fund assets. 

As with the VanEck filing, the REX ETFs will make use of a wholly owned subsidiary domiciled in the Cayman Islands. The subsidiary can represent up to 25% of the fund’s total assets.

In addition to futures, the funds can also invest in swap agreements, other ETFs, exchange-traded notes, fixed income and cash or cash equivalents, the prospectus said.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]