- purchasing them directly on a cryptocurrency exchange
- buying a Bitcoin trust, or
- buying a Bitcoin Futures Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
However, the lack of an ETF or similar vehicle that holds cryptocurrencies directly (and therefore better reflect the spot price of the cryptocurrency), has made it difficult for people to gain direct exposure to these assets.
Yet while a U.S.-based crypto ETF (that actually holds the underlying cryptocurrencies themselves) remains in regulatory limbo, RIA Ritholtz Wealth Management has teamed up with index provider WisdomTree, crypto custodian Gemini, and crypto platform provider Onramp to offer access to a diversified cryptocurrency index through a separately managed account format that financial advisors will be able to use with their clients.
The index offers direct exposure to a blend of 13 currencies, with a 36% weighting in Bitcoin, a 20% weighting in Ethereum, and 4% weightings in 11 other crypto assets. The index is currently available through Ritholtz advisors, but the creators hope to roll it out to other advisors in early 2022, and potentially directly to individual investors in the future.
In terms of fees for the product, an Onramp executive said they should be ‘less than 2%’, which would put it below the expense ratio of the popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, but potentially above the sub-1% expense ratios for the Bitcoin Futures ETFs.