The UK’s Channel Islands have given the green light to Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), marking the launch of the world’s first listed and regulated Bitcoin fund.

GABI, which has existed since 2014, is Global Advisors’ first product, the group later launching COINXBT and COINXBE, which both made pioneering debuts on the Swedish Nasdaq.

It will trade on the Channel Islands Securities Exchange (CISE).

GABI: ‘Time is right’ for Bitcoin

“The time is right,” Global Advisor Principal Daniel Masters commented in a press release issued today:

“Bitcoin now has a market capitalization of over $12.4 bln, an all-time high, with approximately 16 mln coins in issue. Bitcoin is the leading digital currency, ranking 73rd in the total amount in circulation on the global list of M1 forms of money.”

He added that recent analysis showing an eight-fold increase in implied value by 2026 also helped spur the listing.

GABI is being sponsored by local firm Verras Professional Services, whose Director Jonathan Bale is also the specialist at the alternative asset law firm which helped the fund list successfully.

The pay-off from the exchange listing is not least a boost to the funds’ reputation, Bale says, with GABI now “able to demonstrate the oversight, due diligence and monitoring that comes with regulation and an exchange listing.”

“This is testament to the hard work that Global Advisors’ principals… have put into evolving an institutionally robust offering,” he added.

Europe hots up on Bitcoin betting

The fund was already the first regulated Bitcoin fund at its launch two years ago, with Masters adding that the new first was nonetheless a result of how far the product had come. He commented:

“Today's listing of GABI on the CISE acknowledges how far we have come over the last two years since GABI was launched as the world's first regulated Bitcoin fund, as well as the transformational role Bitcoin is starting to play as a global currency and its emergence as an important, uncorrelated asset class for investors.”

However, the race for the prowess of Bitcoin instruments is meanwhile far from over.

Earlier this year, fellow British territory Gibraltar launched the first Bitcoin exchange-traded instrument. It became Europe’s first regulated Bitcoin instrument, trading on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany’s Deutsche Börse.