REX Shares debuted an exchange-trade fund on Friday providing exposure to Strategy’s convertible bonds, a form of debt the ETF issuer said was hard to access for most investors.
The REX Bitcoin Corporate Treasury Convertible Bond ETF (BMAX) provides exposure to debt from three U.S. companies. However, REX said in a press release that the fund is “highly concentrated” in products offered by Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
Since Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, issued its first batch of convertible senior notes in 2020, REX Financial CEO Greg King said in a statement that retail investors and investment advisors have lacked the same opportunities as institutional investors to access these products.
“Until now, these bonds have been difficult for individual investors to reach,” he said. “BMAX removes those barriers making it easier to invest in the strategy pioneered by Michael Saylor.”
The fund debuted on the Nasdaq with $24.8 million in assets, according to REX’s website. Aside from Strategy’s convertible notes, which account for 81% of the fund’s exposure, the fund contains similar products issued by Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms.
Convertible senior notes are bonds that can be converted into shares by an investor if the associated company’s stock price rises above a certain market price.
The fund is actively managed, and REX said it may invest up to 20% of its assets in equities issued by companies that leverage Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. Those could be purchased on a secondary market or stem from converting convertible bonds.
REX has issued ETFs centered on Strategy before. The company currently offers leveraged ETFs providing 2x long or short exposure to Strategy’s stock.
It has also filed for several spot crypto ETFs. Most recently the company filed for an ETF that would provide exposure to the price of MOVE, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network that just launched its mainnet earlier this week.
