Finally, an ETF Offering Blockchain Exposure

Blockchain: a revolutionary concept that’s currently disrupting the Fintech industry. While the first Fintech application of blockchain was seen in 2009 with the launch of the Bitcoin (BTC) network, the concept has now amassed interest, investment, and innovation from nearly every industry one can think of. The acceptance and rapid growth that has been seen in the cryptocurrency market alone, bear testimony of the level of acceptance blockchain and its applications now command globally. Now, a good number of investors and traders have already hopped on the blockchain bandwagon via investments into either blockchain-based companies and / or cryptocurrency offerings that deploy this distributed ledger technology. However, there still remains that segment of US-based investors that prefer diversifying their risk and exposure by investing in blockchain-based ETFs (exchange-traded funds).

SEC Certified to Begin Trading

So, while the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn’t been open-heartedly welcoming the cryptocurrency concept, they haven’t expressed any cautionary warning or advice against blockchain as a concept. In fact, it’s now begun giving its nod to ETFs that provide exposure to blockchain companies. On January 16th, the SEC certified the listing of the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK).

The ETF comes from the Amplify ETF Trust’s stable and is expected to begin trading on the NYSE ARCA Exchange from January 17th 2018 (according to BusinessWire) under the symbol BLOK. The ETF seeks to provide its investors with exposure to publicly-traded global companies leading the research, investment and revenue creation related to blockchain-based and other distributed ledger technologies.

Salient Features of the Fund

According to the fund’s latest amended registration document (Form N1-A filed with the SEC), annual fund operating expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment), have been pegged at 0.70% until January 16th 2019, and at 0.90% thereafter. The fund’s portfolio would be managed by Michael Venuto, Chief Investment Officer at Toroso, and Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Director of Product Management at Exponential ETFs. Disclosure with respect to the Fund’s portfolio holdings will be available in the Fund’s SAI (Statement of Additional Information) on the Amplify ETFs website.

What Makes BLOK Different?

“Our approach is not necessarily to be a cryptocurrency fund, but instead going one layer deeper and trying to own blockchain and then through to the companies that are kind of doing the leading work in it that are publicly traded. And then second, having some exposure to the leading or most widely recognized application on the blockchain right now, which is cryptocurrency, but doing it through vehicles that are already exchange-listed,” said Christian Magoon, CEO of Amplify ETFs in a BlockTribune interview back in November 2017.

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