The Pomp Podcast
#399: Fred Pye on Launching A Publicly Traded Bitcoin Fund
- Fred Pye's 40-year journey from getting gold, silver, and platinum listed on the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1986 to launching the first Bitcoin fund on a major exchange (Toronto Stock Exchange) in 2020.
- The regulatory battle to approve Bitcoin fund: rejection by Ontario Securities Commission, followed by a landmark October 2019 court victory on all counts addressing custody, auditability, pricing, and market manipulation concerns.
- The Bitcoin Fund (QBTC.U) structure: now operating as a virtual ETF with daily subscriptions at NAV and monthly redemptions; plans for at-the-market offerings and potential international listings (Gibraltar, Europe, Dubai, Singapore, and eventually NYSE/NASDAQ).
- Custody solved through Gemini partnership; auditability achieved via Grant Thornton's Cadillac C blockchain auditing system; pricing addressed through the Envis Institutional Bitcoin Index created with VanEck.
- Bitcoin's store-of-wealth use case competing with fiat; Forex traders and stablecoins as the catalyst for hyperadoption; Canada Stable Corp project demonstrating T+3 second bond settlement on blockchain at minimal cost.
- Future product pipeline: Ethereum fund in prospectus stage; potential DeFi money market funds yielding 8% in Canadian dollars; Bitcoin Children's Education Fund concept.