By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Wednesday filed to switch the listing of their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund to BATS Global Markets from Nasdaq, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a listing three years ago.
The proposed ETF, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, will list 1 million shares at $65 each, according to the filing. That is up from a list price of $20.09 per share given in the first filing.
The filing did not say why there was a change in trading venues, but over the last year BATS has emerged as one of the fastest-rising trading venues for ETFs. BATS is the second largest U.S. equities market operator. If approved by the SEC, the Winklevoss ETF would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity.
The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN.
Gemini Trust Company, the Winklevoss brothers’ trust company, which runs a bitcoin trading venue, has been designated the custodian of the ETF. There was no designated custodian in the previous filings. Gemini operates a trading platform for bitcoin and for another digital currency, ether.
The ETF’s bitcoin will be valued using the Gemini’s spot price as of 4 p.m. Eastern time each business day, according to the SEC filing.
Bitcoin’s value has been highly volatile, having peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.
It has since recovered, hitting a more than two-year high of nearly $780 last week in the run-up to the British referendum whether the country should leave the European Union. As of late Wednesday, one bitcoin was worth $634.24 (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Winklevoss brothers choose BATS over Nasdaq for bitcoin ETF listing
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
