In the early days, bitcoin was known only to people who frequented cryptography forums. Soon, bitcoin became accessible to those technically advanced enough to run nodes and “mine” the Bitcoin Blockchain. Eventually, bitcoin became more mainstream as more people started understanding, owning and talking about it. Many companies, like the Bitfury Group, were launched.

However, these paths to bitcoin have always required two things: Being an early adopter and having the technical expertise to understand and engage in the network. You had to understand the difference between your private and public keys. You had to know how to run the bitcoin protocol (and how to set up your computing system to handle the work). And, most of all, you had to have heard of bitcoin before it was on CNBC.

Now that mainstream media covers bitcoin on a daily basis, more investors are taking notice. A common misconception, however, is that until regulators approve exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, there are no suitable investing “on-ramps” aside from buying bitcoin. There are many routes potential investors can take to invest in the future of bitcoin — even without a technical background, or without holding bitcoin itself as an asset.

Option 1: Invest in a Regulated Bitcoin Mining Fund

Last week, Bitfury and our partners at Final Frontier, a financial services firm based in Switzerland, launched a fully regulated bitcoin mining fund designed for institutional and professional investors, following authorization by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority. The product provides investors with a regulated investment vehicle to gain exposure to bitcoin mining. It was engineered leveraging Bitfury’s world-class expertise in hardware development and mining, and Final Frontier’s experience developing and structuring financial products.

For investors who recognize bitcoin’s potential as an investable asset, bitcoin mining provides an effective way to gain exposure to this asset class through investing in its infrastructure.

Access to bitcoin mining has traditionally posed technological, logistical, financial and execution risk challenges to institutional investors. The new fund addresses these challenges by offering exposure to bitcoin mining via a fully regulated fund in a European jurisdiction, with top-tier service providers. The fund invests in turnkey assets comprised of mining sites with some of the lowest electricity and operating costs globally that feature state-of-the-art Bitfury datacenters. The sites are scouted and operated by Bitfury (Bitfury has a substantial minority stake in Final Frontier).

Option 2: Invest in a Hosted Bitcoin Mining Operation