Croatian financial regulator approves the first BTC investment fund

• The financial regulator of Croatia, Hanfa, has approved Griffon Asset Management’s Passive Digital Asset fund. 
• This is the first BTC investment fund approved by the financial watchdog.
• Hanfa has also reportedly approved state-owned bank HPB to serve as the Bitcoin fund’s depository. 

Hanfa, the financial regulator of Croatia, has approved Griffon Asset Management’s Passive Digital Asset fund, a Bitcoin investment fund for the public to invest in. The financial watchdog has also reportedly approved Croatian state-owned bank, Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB), to serve as the fund’s depository. 

The newly approved BTC fund is Croatia’s first regulated cryptocurrency fund that has received Hanfa’s approval. The fund invests only in Bitcoin and comes with an initial investment period of 15 days or once total assets hit 1,000,000 HRK (around $145,000), subject to what comes first. 

As per an official ruling, Griffon Asset Management will utilize three different distributed ledger technology (DLT) explorers to calculate daily asset value. An excerpt from the ruling says:

Also, access to and disposal of crypto assets requires multiple key signatures that are physically stored in separate secure locations, and the transfer of assets cannot take place without the approval of both the Company and the Depository with their keys.

Notably, the BTC fund will not charge any performance fee for its investors. However, it will charge a 2.5% management fee from investors who exit the fund before two years from the date of their investment. Investors who exit the fund within one year will be charged with a 3.5% management fee.