The ETF, dubbed “Sber — Blockchain Economy,” will track prominent crypto firms and trade under the ticker SBBE.
Sber, Russia’s largest bank and supported by the Russian government, is creating a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) to track the performance of prominent crypto firms like Coinbase and Galaxy Digital.
The new ETF is tied to several blockchain and crypto industry enterprises, including hardware and software providers for mining and issuing crypto currencies, according to Sber Asset Management, which revealed the news on Thursday.
The fund, dubbed “Sber — Blockchain Economy,” will trade under the ticker SBBE and will track Sber’s investment arm SberCIB’s eponymous index.
Some of the world’s biggest crypto companies will be included in SBBE’s portfolio, including Coinbase, the largest exchange in the United States; Mike Novogratz’s investment firm, Galaxy Digital; and blockchain software developer Digindex.
While SBBE’s currency is the US dollar, investors will be able to acquire shares on the SberInvestor app or through “any other Russian broker” using Russian rubles. According to the release, the share price starts at 10 rubles ($0.013).
Sber’s blockchain ETF will be the “first ETF in Russia to allow investors to profit from the blockchain market without the obstacles associated with direct development, buying, holding, and selling digital currencies,” according to the statement.
“Direct investments in crypto assets are associated with high risks, so it’s difficult to deal with them on your own. As such, we offer to invest not in crypto but rather in firms focused on the development of blockchain technologies,” Sber Asset Management CEO Evgeny Zaitsev said. He added that the new ETF will be available to “any individual.”
The announcement comes just a few weeks after Sber Asset Management chief Vasily Illarionov revealed the company’s ambitions for a blockchain ETF in mid-December. According to him, the fund is exempt from the Bank of Russia’s limitations and can be sold to individual investors.
The Russian central bank has prohibited mutual funds from purchasing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and offering crypto exposure to qualified or unqualified investors, as previously reported.
