FINMA approves Switzerland’s first retail BTC ETF, waiving diversification rules for Bitcoin only
- FINMA approved Switzerland’s first retail fund that invests directly in Bitcoin on Tuesday.
- The regulator waived standard diversification rules on the grounds of Bitcoin’s trading history and volume.
- European banks, such as Germany’s Sparkassen, are opening crypto trading to everyday customers.
Switzerland’s market regulator, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), has approved the first exchange-traded retail fund that directly holds Bitcoin on Tuesday, October 20.
The first-of-its-kind approval in the country lands in the same week as Sparkassen rolled out crypto trading inside its banking app in neighboring Germany.
Switzerland is late to Bitcoin funds despite pioneering ETPs
The FINMA clearance means Switzerland finally gets a public fund that actually holds Bitcoin after being one of the first to list crypto exchange-traded products.
As of April 2026, the SIX Swiss Exchange’s monthly crypto report listed 397 crypto products, including 217 crypto ETPs tied to 23 underlying assets. 21Shares, CoinShares and WisdomTree also list Bitcoin and Ether funds in the country.
Notably, the Crypto Market Index Fund that FINMA approved in 2021 was exclusively open to qualified investors and spreads its money across a basket of tokens.
The new fund that FINMA approved today is open to retail buyers, and it concentrates on a single asset.
That approval came with an exemption to the risk diversification rules that Switzerland enforces on public funds, which require them to spread risk across many holdings.
Per FINMA’s announcement, it granted the exemption because of Bitcoin’s long trading history and higher trading volume compared with other cryptocurrencies.
That logic does not extend to any other cryptocurrencies.
FINMA attached safeguards
The approval FINMA granted to the unnamed Bitcoin product came with other conditions.
FINMA noted that there is a queue of fund providers that have already filed or announced applications for similar products in Switzerland.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs had their largest daily intake day since September 22, drawing $526.7 million on Monday.
BlackRock also filed a preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a new iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF (PBIT), its third Bitcoin fund filing.
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FAQs
What exactly did FINMA approve?
FINMA approved the first exchange-traded public fund under Swiss law that invests directly in Bitcoin, classified as an "other fund for alternative investments" with particular risks, according to the regulator.
Why did FINMA waive the diversification rules?
The regulator granted an exemption from standard risk-diversification requirements because Bitcoin has a long trading history and notably high trading volume relative to other cryptocurrencies, FINMA said.
How is this different from FINMA's 2021 crypto fund?
The 2021 Crypto Market Index Fund was limited to qualified investors and held a basket of cryptocurrencies, while the new fund is open to retail buyers and concentrates on Bitcoin alone, according to FINMA.
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Hannah Collymore
Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration.
