Winklevoss Brothers Name State Street as Bitcoin ETF Chief

The Winklevoss Brothers have registered their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset financial worth (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly proof of control exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate proof of control of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses.

The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate 'proof of control' of the private keys that control the Trust's bitcoin on a monthly basis. Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the net asset of the ETF. The prior pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini operates a virtual currency trading scene. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 1,900 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume, according to company data.

The regular auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the corporation’s market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN.

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