Following the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval of ETFs, the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) fee war has now spread to Europe, and assets managers Invesco and WisdomTree have reduced the expenses of their ETP for institutional investors.
Before their approval on January 10, all eleven applicants made multiple revisions to their S-1 forms to reduce their ETF fees. European listed exchange-traded products (ETPs) are currently exhibiting a comparable pattern.
Invesco and WisdomTree, two prominent asset managers, reduced the expenses associated with their European-listed ETPs by over 60%. There will be a charge reduction from 0.99 percent to 0.39 percent for the $137 million Invesco Physical Bitcoin ETP and from 0.95 percent to 0.35 percent for the $325 million WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin ETP.
Exchange-traded products involving digital assets are structured as exchange-traded notes (ETN) in Europe instead of funds. ETN shareholders own debt security, while ETF owners own some of the fund’s underlying assets.
Increased competition and the availability of numerous ETFs in the United States, one of the foremost financial markets, are the primary factors underlying the substantial reduction in fees.
Demand for European ETPs from U.S.-based investors has decreased considerably since the approval of eleven ETPs in the U.S. Previously, U.S.-based investors were required to invest in ETPs based in Canada and Europe.
Gary Buxton, head of ETFs for Europe at Invesco, stated in an interview with the Financial Times that “multiple” ETFs in the United States reduced their fees to achieve a “new equilibrium between supply and demand,” resulting in prices that are significantly lower than those of existing ETPs in Europe.
The U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs are more liquid and available on a single exchange platform, which makes them more accessible to European investors than their European counterparts.
Daily trading volume for the newly introduced spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States has exceeded two weeks. On their first day of trading, these ETFs attracted billions of dollars in trading volume.