해외 비트코인 상장지수집합투자기구(ETF) 사례 및 국내 비트코인 상장지수집합투자기구(ETF) 도입을 위한 논의

Recently, an exchange traded fund (ETF) using virtual assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as an underlying asset has been launched and has started to be sold in foreign countries such as Canada and the United States. Given that the sizes of the virtual asset market and collective investment using trusts are growing rapidly in Korea, the introduction of an ETF tied to the price of virtual assets is expected to be discussed in earnest in the near future. ETFs are a type of collective investment scheme established by collective investment business entities under the Capital Markets Act. They generally take the form of an investment trust as a collective investment vehicle under the Capital Markets Act. In Canada, an ETF has been established, in which an asset management company concludes a contract with a trust company, and then the trust company re-entrusts the trust property to an overseas virtual asset custodian. In this paper, after reviewing the provisions of the current law on investment trusts as an ETF with a focus on the Capital Markets Act, I will examine whether it is possible to set up an ETF that tracks the market price of virtual assets under the current law. In addition, it has not yet been established in Korea whether virtual assets may be regarded as assets that are subject to trust under the Capital Markets Act. If it can be seen as an asset that may be a subject matter of a trust, there will be virtual asset custodians who have been licensed for trust business under the Capital Markets Act. In the future, if a trust company authorized under the Capital Markets Act conducts virtual asset custody service, overseas asset management companies may re-entrust virtual assets to domestic service providers.