Two Indian mutual fund houses, Navi Mutual Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL) Mutual Fund are entering the crypto industry by filing applications for blockchain and metaverse exchange-traded funds (ETF).
Both of them have filed separate ETF drafts to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to allow investors to make profits from metaverse, blockchain, and virtual asset companies.
The Scheme Information Document (SID) statements submitted to SEBI’s website by these mutual fund houses, state that both the funds will be open-ended fund of fund schemes.
Navi’s Metaverse ETF Fund of Fund (FoF) will invest in overseas ETFs, which provide exposure to companies that benefit from the advances in the field of metaverse.
The indicative list of investments for Navi Metaverse FoF includes Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF and Proshares Metaverse ETF, both of which were launched recently.
The benchmark for Navi Metaverse FoF will be the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which comprises Apple, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Microsoft and many more.
Whereas, ABSL’s Blockchain & Virtual Digital Assets ETFs FoF will invest in units of global ETFs focused on the global blockchain theme (including virtual digital assets).
ABSL’s FoF investments will include Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF, Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF, Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF, Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF and ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFs.
The benchmark for ABSL’s FoF will be the MSCI ACWI IMI Blockchain Economy Index, which tracks large, mid and small-cap securities across 23 developed markets and 25 emerging market countries.
According to the SID documents, a minimum application amount of Rs.500 would be required for the Navi Metaverse ETF FoF and a minimum of Rs.100 for the ABSL ETF FoF during the new fund offer period.
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Keeping in mind that the crypto industry is not currently regulated in the Indian market, it is uncertain whether the ETFs will be granted approval by the SEBI.
