- Israel saw the debut of six Bitcoin mutual funds with fees ranging from 0.25% to 1.50%.
- Funds seek to provide both direct Bitcoin exposure and portfolio diversification.
Israel is set to take the cryptocurrency investment stage by storm, as six Bitcoin mutual funds are scheduled for launch on December 31, 2024. Phoenix Investment, More, Ayalon, IBI, Meitav, and Migdal Capital Markets will manage these mutual funds. These funds have long been an issue of lobbying by asset managers in seeking regulated Bitcoins in the country.
The funds charge management fees ranging from 0.25% to 1.5%. Amongst these, one actively managed fund will be seeking a positive alpha relative to the price performance of Bitcoin. The company will initially conduct the transaction daily, using the prevailing Bitcoin price at that time, and may later introduce continuous trading facilities.
Israel Takes Bold Move Towards Bitcoin Mutual Funds
Investors can buy the funds in Israeli shekels, thus giving direct access to Bitcoin’s performance. This local effort keeps with the global trend of increased adoption of cryptocurrencies as the U.S. SEC recently allowed spot Bitcoin ETFs early this year. Such ETFs have attracted billions of dollars in institutional investments and hold over $110 billion in net assets equivalent to 5.7% of Bitcoin’s total market cap.
Now there is an urgent demand for products of Bitcoins in Israel and asset managers have been submitting proposals since 2024. Eyal Haim vice president at Ayalon Mutual Funds said they are indeed showing interest in digital currencies, and that this was really for launching purposes of theirs for the benefit of the investors.
This also comes in tandem with broader Israel development in digital finance. Its central bank digital currency project is the digital shekel under the Digital Shekel Challenge, which is aimed at fostering banking competition through real-time payments.
As Bitcoin’s price calms down from its latest growth to $108,000, and now trading at $95,526.8 in the last 24 hours it has declined by 2.70%, overall momentum for cryptocurrency investment seems to be quite steady on a global level. These funds, thus make a bridge between the classical and digital finance spheres on the Israeli territory while introducing local investors to opportunities in diversified portfolios in the frame of regulated and easily reachable conditions.
