On February 15, 2019, the Director of the Investment Funds &
Structured Products Branch (the
"Director") of the Ontario Securities
Commission (the "OSC") refused to issue a receipt for
a non-offering prospectus of a non-redeemable investment fund (the
"Fund") that would invest substantially
all of its assets in Bitcoin (the
"Decision").
Background
3iQ Corp. (the "Manager") filed a
preliminary non-offering long-form prospectus to qualify the Fund
as a reporting issuer on October 30, 2018. The Fund's
investment objectives were to provide its investors with: (i)
exposure to Bitcoin and the daily price movements of the U.S.
dollar price of Bitcoin; and (ii) the opportunity for long-term
capital appreciation. To achieve its investment objectives, the
Fund would invest in Bitcoin "directly" – i.e. not
through any specified derivatives.
