The world’s first Ethereum-based fund to be listed on a serious inventory alternate opened for buying and selling on Thursday, however not with out some hiccups. Listed on the Toronto Inventory Change, The Ether Fund (TSX:QETH.U) opened for buying and selling at $10.80 per share after finishing a profitable IPO during which $76.5 million was raised.

To the concern of merchants, the fund was not obtainable for buying and selling upon the opening bell, formally halted due to a delay in closing the fund’s IPO prospectus. Buying and selling truly commenced two hours late, with 345,331 shares being traded throughout the remainder of the day. The fund reached an intra-day excessive of $11.48 earlier than closing at $11.02. This represents a achieve of two.5% on a buying and selling day during which the worth of ETH was down by round 0.5%, making a premium on the worth of QETH.U shares.

The fund was launched by Canada’s greatest digital asset funding supervisor 3iQ, as a method for merchants and traders to realize publicity to the Ethereum market with out having to buy, retailer or promote ETH themselves. At a median worth of $565 per ETH, every share of QETH.U represented roughly 0.0187 ETH originally of the buying and selling day. The cash backing the fund’s shares are being held by Gemini Custody, the custodial arm of crypto alternate large Gemini.

The Ether Fund joins 3iQ’s different crypto-backed safety, The Bitcoin Fund (TSX:QBTC), which was added to the alternate in late October. 3iQ was ranked the third greatest public digital asset fund on the earth in a analysis report launched earlier this month. The corporate confused the significance of providing crypto-backed securities on a serious inventory alternate in a press release accompanying the opening of QETH.U buying and selling:

“Having access to digital property […] might be daunting, pricey, and inconvenient. 3iQ provides traders handy and acquainted funding merchandise to realize publicity to digital property.”

In Dec. 2017, the primary American ETH-backed fund opened for buying and selling, the Grayscale Ethereum Belief, which is listed on the OTC Pink market. The fund noticed a improve of inflows via the third quarter this yr, signifying the arrival of a brand new group of “Ethereum first” traders, in response to Grayscale’s managing director.