Switzerland has approved its first retail investment fund to hold bitcoin directly, opening a route for ordinary Swiss investors to gain cryptocurrency exposure through a regulated fund rather than by buying and storing the asset themselves. The Bitcoin Fund ETF, known by the ticker BBIT, was approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority on Oct. 20 and is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November, although the precise listing date has not been set.
The approval required FINMA to grant an exception to rules that normally require investment funds to spread their money across multiple assets. The regulator said bitcoin’s long trading history and unusually high trading volume compared with other cryptocurrencies supported the decision. The exemption applies to this bitcoin fund and does not automatically authorize funds holding ether, solana or other digital assets.
Once listed, BBIT will be accessible to institutional and retail investors through the SIX trading system. Overseas banks and brokers can access the ETF directly as approved trading participants, if they meet regulatory and technical requirements, or indirectly through an existing participant. That does not give them blanket permission to sell the fund to customers abroad: public distribution has been approved only in Switzerland, and customer access in other countries will depend on local law. Even in Switzerland, investors may have to wait until their bank or broker supports the security and completes the required technical setup.
The fund’s structure distinguishes it from many European bitcoin products, which are issued as debt instruments and leave investors with a claim against the issuing company. FINMA also required supervised institutions to address operational and custody risks and to explain the fund’s risks clearly in its documents.
Investors who buy BBIT without receiving investment advice must be warned about the risks but do not need a suitability assessment, FINMA said. The regulator emphasized that bitcoin remains highly volatile and that investors could lose a significant portion of their capital. Other fund providers have submitted or announced applications for bitcoin ETFs, while European Union rules generally prevent conventional retail funds from investing directly in bitcoin.