Crypto Investment Platform Mudrex to Deliver U.S. Bitcoin ETFs to Indian Investors

Indian cryptocurrency investment platform Mudrex plans to offer U.S. spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to institutional and retail investors in India, CEO and co-founder Edul Patel said.

"This is much more valuable to institutions, as this was already available to retailers," Patel said in an interview. Retail clients in the country could access spot-bitcoin ETFs through U.S. stock investing companies, but "as far as we know" Mudrex is the first in India to offer this service to institutions, Patel said.

In the first phase, Mudrex will list four spot ETFs – BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and Vanguard.

Mudrex, which is backed by Y-Combinator and based in California, has a subsidiary registered with the Intelligence Unit of India. It also has a toehold in the European Union, with licenses in Lithuania and Italy. The firm will ensure the processing of the actual transaction through broker partners in the U.S., while the Indian subsidiary will facilitate the spot-bitcoin ETF service, said Patel.

"The bitcoin spot ETF works as a security and Indians are allowed to purchase securities under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) and, as a result, users or institutions specifically, who do want to get access to bitcoin can now start using the bitcoins through ETFs to diversify their portfolio," Patel said.

(Source: CoinDesk)