Bitcoin Monthly Report | December

24 December 2020

 

  • The biggest force in markets remains Monetary Policy, accelerating the debasement of DM currencies and creating demand for Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETFs as has happened already across EM; 
  • The risk-reward for professional asset managers is dramatically more supportive for Bitcoin than the last time the price of Bitcoin was at these levels;
  • BTCE trades at a significantly lower spread to NAV than other bitcoin access products.

 

Performance Review

  • The Bitcoin price ranged between a max of $19,378.61 on 30th November to a min of $13,619.76 on 2nd November, a growth of 42.08%.[1]
  • At the end of November, the Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto ETC stands at $175m of assets under management. AUM in USD terms grew by 95.2% in November alongside the 42% growth in the USD price of Bitcoin.

 

BTCE saw a huge 40.8% rally in November driven by accelerating inflows as institutional and corporate momentum accelerated into Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETFs and ETPs.  The ‘Everything Rally’ across asset classes commenced from the confluence of a number of technical and fundamental drivers. 

November saw a substantial groundswell of interest in BTCE from institutional asset managers. The Scarcity Asset rationale for ‘why bitcoin’ became better understood - as did ‘why now’, with allocators appreciating that the big difference between the last time Bitcoin was at these levels in January 2018 and now is that they need to be able to point to the best-in-class instrument to provide access to equity and multi-asset mandates.

 

Bitcoin Monthly Performance

November*

12 Month**

42.08%

151.33%

Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

Source: Bloomberg, HANetf Performance based off XBT price *November figures based on 31.10.20 – 30.11.20 **12 Month figures based on 30.11.19 -30.11.20

 

Bitcoin and BTCE Performance

Total Return NAV to Date (up to 30/11/2020)

 

 

 

1M

 

3M

 

6M

 

YTD

 

12M

Since Inception

Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto – BTCE*

41.84%

65.10%

NA

97.80%

-

97.80%

Bitcoin**

42.08%

65.93%

105.81%

170.72%

151.33%

99.72%

*BTCE inception was on 08/06/2020 ** Bitcoin price is based off XBT daily performance from Bloomberg

Performance before inception is based on XBT daily performance from Bloomberg. Past performance of XBT does not represent actual performance and should not be interpreted as an indication of actual or future performance. Past performance for XBT is in USD. Past performance is not an indicator for future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product. It is provided for illustrative purposes only. Investors should read the prospectus of the Issuer (“Prospectus”) before investing and should refer to the section of the Prospectus entitled ‘Risk Factors’ for further details of risks associated with an investment in these products. Source: Bloomberg / HANetf. Data as of 30/11/20

 

Industry News

Global equities saw their strongest performance on record with US stocks at the forefront.  As noted here, the preceding months had seen a near-record breakdown in traditional cross-asset correlations.  Together with the uncertainty of a potentially disputed US election outcome akin to the Bush-Gore fall-out of late 2000, many institutional investors were underweight US equities, evidenced by the low hedging activity that ITI saw ahead of the event.  Many institutions had not time to convene investment committees in time to respond to the subsequent three consecutive Mondays of Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough news following the election. This sparked a flurry of leading economists and strategists to issue bullish outlooks for risk assets into 2021. 

The Great Rotation debate evolved into an acceptance of a primary ‘risk-on’ prevailing dynamic as well as a secondary rebound of Value and Cyclical stocks and sectors. The S&P quickly broke up to new highs through a potential ‘Triple Top’ since September. Whilst the Nasdaq took longer to follow suit, investors returned to technology stocks on news that Tesla was to join the S&P and Airbnb’s market debut.  Gold and precious metals continued to consolidate but expectations mounted for a more bullish paradigm ahead for commodities on a return of inflation after the near 40-year bull-trend in bonds which has left more than a quarter of global bonds in negative yield.  ITI Capital observes that the biggest force in markets remains the monetary policies of the Fed et co. and the subsequent debasement of currencies has come to DM as it came to EM in recent years.  November saw mainstream financial analysts incorporate Bitcoin into their traditional multi-asset research notes citing the ‘debasement of fiat currencies’, hitherto the parlance of crypto players.

 

Outlook

With Bitcoin nearing the December 17th All-Time High in US Dollar terms, expectations are mounting for it to follow the currencies of the BRICS and other emerging markets to new highs. There is much speculation about which is the most appropriate fundamental valuation model for Bitcoin. It is currently c.3% of the market valuation of gold ‘above ground’, with observers increasingly extrapolating prices towards 5% and 10% equivalent levels.

BTCE is the world’s first centrally-cleared Exchange Traded Product on bitcoin. It trades within ‘basis points’ of the NAV of the underlying Bitcoin price. This is in stark comparison to the incumbent US product that trades at a double-digit percentage premium.  This makes BTCE more acceptable to the investment governance committees at large investors.  ITI provides block-trading access to institutional investors via the liquidity of the underlying Bitcoin market as well as the ability for investors to finance their positions with the counterparty credit risk afforded by FCA-regulated ITI Capital’s prime broker. 

"With BTCE, our mission was always to bring investors a better way to invest in Bitcoin. We wanted a product that would trade on a major exchange, was highly liquid, tracked the price of bitcoin accurately, was fully fungible with bitcoin and was engineered with investor security front and centre. We are proud of what we have achieved with BTCE and the high trading volumes and spectacular rise in AUM means the investment community is recognising BTCE as the best-in-class product for investment in bitcoin." - Bradley Duke, Co-Founder & CEO of ETC Group CEO of ETC Group

 

Product Details

BTCetcBitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto (Ticker: BTCE) is an exchange traded cryptocurrency (ETC), Bitcoin ETP that tracks the price of Bitcoin. 

The ETC is 100% physically backed by Bitcoin, it trades on Deutsche Börse´s XETRA, and is centrally cleared providing investors with one of the safest and most liquid ways to gain exposure to Bitcoin. Each unit of BTCE gives the holder a claim on a predefined amount of Bitcoin. 

BTCE is issued by ETC Group and marketed and distributed by HANetf.  

Please remember that the value of your investment may go down as well as up and past performance is no indication of future performance.

When trading a Bitcoin ETF or ETP your capital is at risk.

 

Exchange BB Code  RIC  ISIN  Currency  Income 
Xetra BTCE BTCE.DE DE000A27Z304 EUR Acc 

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