China’s exiled Bitcoin miners, has now added another feather to its crypto cap: Central Asia’s first spot Bitcoin ETF.
Astana-based Fonte Capital will launch the Fonte Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund OEIC (BETF) on the Astana International Exchange (AIX) come August 13. It’ll be priced in U.S. dollars, presumably so no one has to explain tenge volatility to overseas investors.
The key difference here: BETF holds actual Bitcoin, not promises, IOUs, or synthetics dressed up in ticker tape. BitGo, a U.S. regulated custodian, will keep it all in cold storage with up to $250 million in insurance. That’s cold storage as in “offline vaults” and not “we put the password in a really safe Google Doc.” The idea is to calm the nerves of both institutions and retail traders who’ve had enough of hacked exchanges and disappearing CEOs.
The ETF will sit under the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), a jurisdiction its backers claim can protect assets from sanctions drama while offering a legal playground for licensed exchanges, custodians, and investment products. Unlike its more timid neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan is playing the role of the region’s crypto extrovert, inviting foreign capital while showing off its new regulatory framework.
BETF is built for efficiency: in-kind settlements, a low expense ratio, and minimal tracking error to Bitcoin’s price. In other words, investors can expect something closer to Bitcoin’s actual performance, and fewer surprise detours into “mystery fees” territory.
Functionally, this means an investor in Almaty or London can pick up BETF shares on AIX without touching a crypto exchange or managing a private key. No frantic searches for your seed phrase written on a napkin, just the ETF experience, with a Bitcoin backbone.
Fonte Capital, registered with AIFC since 2022, says BETF offers a “straightforward way” to add Bitcoin to a portfolio. Translation: you can now hold Bitcoin without the DIY storage anxiety, or the possibility of explaining to your accountant why your investment lives in a Ledger you dropped in a lake.
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