“We’re trying to keep Guernsey at the forefront of financial innovation”

Wednesday 13 April 2022

Guernsey’s first cryptocurrency fund has been launched and it required a swift change in regulation, something one of its architects says wouldn’t be possible if attempted in another jurisdiction.

The world’s first Tier 1 Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was designed by consultancy firm Midshore Consulting and launched by Jacobi Asset Management. Essentially they’ve created a fund that tracks the price of bitcoin by buying bitcoin.

“There hadn’t yet been a crypto fund approved in Guernsey and I would imagine at that time a lot of firms would be loath to take on a project like this, because there was a lot of uncertainty over whether or not it would become a regulated fund,” said the MD of Midshore Consulting, Christopher Jehan.

“To give a level of certainty in the early stages I sat down with the regulator and we discussed the control area they’d like to see around it.”

Pictured: “We’re trying to keep Guernsey at the forefront of financial innovation,” said Mr Jehan, “I can tell you that there are other plans in the future to launch other funds.”

Mr Jehan said they needed a change in regulation to allow for the fund to be created.

“As the first ETF to be approved in Guernsey we needed a change in regulation to allow this.

“This can happen in a small jurisdiction like Guernsey: in a relatively small timescale where you can talk to the regulator, civil servants and politicians. Dealing with a much bigger jurisdiction you won’t get that kind of access.

“It took six weeks to change regulation.”