UBS and Citi banks have started offering trading services for shares of spot BTC ETFs

What’s new? Global financial institutions are beginning to open up access to bitcoin-based spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to clients following their approval in the United States. According to CoinDesk, citing sources, Swiss bank UBS will allow ETF shares to be traded by low-risk account holders, while US-based Citi has launched a service for institutional clients. US-based broker Charles Schwab also announced its readiness to work with regulated crypto ETFs.

CoinDesk’s material

What else is known? At the same time, the US investment giant Vanguard banned clients from buying shares of spot BTC ETFs. Thus, when trying to invest in BlackRock’s IBIT or Grayscale’s GBTC funds through a retirement brokerage account, the Vanguard platform issues a warning that the transaction cannot be completed because orders to buy these securities are not accepted.

“Securities may be unavailable for purchase at Vanguard due to a number of variables including regulatory restrictions, corporate actions, or various trading and/or settlement limitations,” the warning clarifies.

In a comment to CoinDesk, a Vanguard spokesperson said that spot bitcoin ETFs will not be available for purchase on the platform. The company does not plan to offer cryptocurrency-related products because they are not consistent with its focus on asset classes that create a balanced long-term investment portfolio.

On the first day of the launch, the trading volume of spot BTC ETF shares in the United States exceeded $4,5 billion. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 funds. On NYSE Arca, GBTC from Grayscale, BITB from Bitwise, and DEFI from Hashdex are admitted. On Nasdaq, IBIT from BlackRock and BRRRR from Valkyrie are admitted. On CBOE — HODL by VanEck, BTCW by Wisdom Tree, FBTC by Fidelity, EZBC by Franklin Templeton, and mutual funds from ARK Invest and 21 Shares (ARKB) and Invesco and Galaxy (BTCO).

In addition, VanEck and Bitwise will begin to direct 5% and 10% of the profits from fund management, respectively, to the development of open-source projects on the Bitcoin network.