Keeping it safe

Fiona Nicolson talked to Stuart Chaussée this week, author of e-book ‘Investor’s Guide to Buffer ETFs: Upside Growth Potential with Downside Protection’. Buffer or targeted outcome strategies in ETFs have seen enormous growth over recent years, attracting more than USD35 billion in assets, allowing investors to protect against downside volatility while capping their total outcome.

Chaussée says: "Most of my clients are nearing retirement or are already retired and want to avoid the effects of deep drawdowns in their portfolios. The primary attraction of buffer ETFs is that they greatly reduce the likelihood of losing a lot of money." Which is an attraction not to be sniffed at.

More evidence of the popularity of cryptocurrency and particularly bitcoin based ETPs came this week, with Fineqia International’s Matteo Greco reporting on the launch of the first spot bitcoin ETF in Australia, from Monochrome Asset Management, plus a significant development, with Blackrock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) now officially holding more BTC than Grayscale’s ETF (GBTC).

GBTC had previously operated as a trust before transitioning to an ETF in January 2024. Both ETFs currently manage over USD19 billion in assets, with IBIT holding approximately USD19.7 billion and GBTC closely trailing at around USD19.2 billion, Greco says.

These are extraordinary asset flow figures and represent the enormous appetite for crypto in ETP form.

CoinShares also noted that Ethereum, recently approved for inclusion as a spot ETF, has enjoyed a turnaround in sentiment with a second week of inflows ahead of the predicted July 2024 launch date of the first products. The positive news for Ethereum has also had an impact on Solana, CoinShares says.

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Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

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