Toronto-based Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. has launched Horizons Blockchain Technology & Hardware Index ETF.
Units of the ETF began trading Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol BKCH.
Blockchain is a record-keeping system that logs and tracks transactions or assets without any central arbiter, offering virtually endless applications.
The fund seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Solactive blockchain technology and hardware index net of expenses. The Index tracks a portfolio of global companies focused directly on three specific subsectors of the broader technology industry:
- companies directly developing blockchain-related applications.
- companies focused on the hardware required for blockchain technology mining
- companaies supporting blockchain technology, such as memory and storage producers, and services important to large-scale mining on a commercial level, such as data centre real estate investment trusts
“BKCH provides a diversified way to enter blockchain investing without taking on a lot of the risks of buying unknown, early stage technology companies,” says Steve Hawkins, president and co-CEO of Horizons ETFs, in a statement.
“Investors get exposure to a global portfolio of some of the larger pure-play blockchain companies, alongside well-established, global technology service and semiconductor providers that are benefiting from the growing global investment in this transformative technology.”
While the fund may provide exposure to miners, exchanges and other companies with cryptocurrency exposure, it will not have direct exposure to physical crypto-assets and/or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or initial coin offerings, Horizons says in a news release.
Furthermore, the ETF will not be directly involved in cryptocurrency mining.
The ETF will have substantial exposure to U.S.-listed securities as well as securities listed in other foreign countries.