Bitcoin ETF History in Canada: First Approvals and How It Changed Global Investing

The world’s first Bitcoin ETF didn’t launch in New York. It didn’t even come from Silicon Valley. On February 18, 2021, it hit the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker BTCC-and changed everything.

What Made the Purpose Bitcoin ETF Different

Before February 2021, if you wanted to invest in Bitcoin through a traditional brokerage, you were stuck buying it on exchanges like Coinbase or Binance. That meant managing private keys, dealing with wallet security, and facing limits on how you could hold it-especially inside tax-advantaged accounts like RRSPs or TFSAs.

Purpose Investments, a Toronto-based asset manager led by Som Seif, changed that. They didn’t build a futures product. They didn’t use derivatives. They bought actual Bitcoin and held it in cold storage, just like a gold ETF holds physical bars. Every share of BTCC represented a direct claim on real Bitcoin, not a bet on its price movement.

That’s the key difference. Other products, like the U.S. ProShares BITO ETF that launched months later, were based on Bitcoin futures contracts. Those are complicated, expensive, and don’t track Bitcoin’s price as cleanly. Purpose’s ETF? It tracked Bitcoin directly. That made it the first true, physically-backed Bitcoin ETF for everyday investors.

How Fast Did It Grow?

The market didn’t just accept it-it exploded.

In the first 48 hours, investors traded around $400 million worth of BTCC shares. Within a month, the fund had over $1 billion in assets under management. That’s faster than any ETF in history at the time. By the end of its first week, Bitcoin ETFs in Canada had collectively traded nearly $1 billion in volume and gathered $600 million in assets. TD Securities called them the most actively traded ETFs in Canada that week.

By its third anniversary in February 2024, BTCC held over $2 billion in Bitcoin. That’s not just a success story-it’s proof that demand for simple, regulated Bitcoin access was massive, and Canada was the first to meet it.

Why Canada Pulled Ahead of the U.S.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had been hesitant for years. They worried about fraud, market manipulation, and the lack of regulated Bitcoin custody. So when the U.S. finally approved a Bitcoin ETF in October 2021, it was a futures-based product. It didn’t hold Bitcoin. It held contracts.

Canada’s regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), took a different approach. They didn’t wait for Bitcoin exchanges to be perfect. They focused on the fund structure itself. Purpose Investments had to prove they could securely hold Bitcoin, provide daily NAV calculations, and allow authorized participants to create and redeem shares. That’s the same process used for gold or oil ETFs.

The OSC didn’t say, “We need to regulate Bitcoin.” They said, “We know how to regulate investment products-and this one meets our standards.” That shift in thinking made all the difference.

The Ripple Effect

Within 24 hours of BTCC’s launch, Evolve Bitcoin ETF (EVOLVE) followed. Canada had two Bitcoin ETFs in the market before the U.S. had one. That wasn’t luck. It was preparation.

The structure of Purpose’s ETF became the blueprint. When the SEC finally approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. in January 2024, they copied Canada’s model almost exactly: direct custody, daily NAV, creation/redemption mechanism, and eligibility for retirement accounts.

Even in Europe, where Bitcoin ETFs had existed for years as exchange-traded products (ETPs), they weren’t true ETFs. They lacked the same investor protections, transparency, and liquidity. Canada’s version was the first to match the standards of traditional ETFs-fully regulated, fully transparent, fully accessible.

What It Meant for Investors

For regular Canadians, this was huge. You could now buy Bitcoin through your brokerage app, hold it in your TFSA, and not worry about hacking, seed phrases, or losing access. No more explaining to your accountant why you have a crypto wallet.

Institutional investors, who had avoided Bitcoin because of custody risks, suddenly had a compliant, audited vehicle to add to their portfolios. Pension funds, endowments, and wealth managers started allocating small percentages to Bitcoin-not because they were crypto believers, but because they could now do it the same way they bought stocks or bonds.

The ETF also helped stabilize Bitcoin’s reputation. Before BTCC, Bitcoin was seen as a fringe asset. After? It became a legitimate investment class. The OSC’s stamp of approval gave it credibility that no tweet or conference ever could.

How It Still Works Today

BTCC still trades on the TSX under two tickers: BTCC.B for Canadian dollars and BTCC.U for U.S. dollars. The fund holds Bitcoin in secure, insured custody with a third-party provider. Each day, the net asset value is calculated and published. Market makers keep the price tightly aligned with Bitcoin’s spot price through arbitrage.

The premium-how much extra you pay over the actual Bitcoin value-stayed under 0.2% within days of launch. That’s better than most closed-end funds. It shows the structure works.

And it’s still growing. As of early 2026, BTCC remains one of the largest spot Bitcoin ETFs in the world-not because it’s the newest, but because it was the first to get it right.

Why This Matters Beyond Canada

Canada didn’t just launch an ETF. They proved a model. They showed regulators around the world that you don’t need to wait for Bitcoin to be “perfect” to offer it to investors. You just need a solid, transparent structure-and the will to approve it.

The U.S. didn’t lead. Japan didn’t lead. Switzerland didn’t lead. Canada did. And now, every country looking to launch a Bitcoin ETF looks to BTCC as the template.

This wasn’t just a financial product. It was a regulatory breakthrough. A proof of concept. A signal that traditional finance and digital assets could coexist-without compromising safety, transparency, or accessibility.

What’s Next?

Canada didn’t stop at Bitcoin. Other crypto ETFs followed-Ethereum, Solana, even crypto mining stocks. But BTCC remains the cornerstone. It’s the one that opened the door.

As more countries roll out their own spot Bitcoin ETFs, they’re not reinventing the wheel. They’re using the Canadian model. That’s the real legacy.

If you’re an investor looking to get into Bitcoin through a traditional account, you’re likely using a structure that was first built in Toronto. That’s not just history. It’s your investment’s foundation.